By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A Hays man was found guilty of second-degree murder Friday in the death of his 5-month-old son.
Emergency personnel were dispatched at 12:15 p.m. on April 2, 2024, to Room 206 at the Rodeway Inn, 3404 Vine St., responding to a report that Fernando Leon III, an infant, was not breathing.
Abraham Duran Leon of Hays, Fernando's father, was also present in the motel room.
Ellis County Attorney Aaron Cunningham said drug paraphernalia was found in the hotel room. A toxicology report found methamphetamine in both Leon's and his son's bodies.
The coroner's report cited methamphetamine intoxication as the cause of the child's death.
Cunningham said further investigation revealed that Fernando had been left swaddled in a heavy blanket in a car seat on a bed near a heater set at 80 degrees for 12 and a half hours alone, Cunningham said.
Abraham Leon was alternately charged with first-degree murder with the underlying felony charge of aggravated endangering a child and first-degree murder with the underlying felony of possession of methamphetamine in the case. A jury found him not guilty on both of those charges.
Leon's criminal history is a level A, the highest level. Cunningham said the second-degree murder is a level 2 person felony, and Leon is facing a sentence of almost 39 years in prison.
Leon will qualify for two years of credit toward his sentence for time served, plus up to a 15% reduction for good-time credit, which would bring his time served with the Kansas Department of Corrections to about 31 years, with no eligibility for parole, Cunningham said.
Ironically, Leon would have qualified for parole after 25 years had he been found guilty of first-degree murder, Cunningham said.
Sentencing has yet to be set in this case.