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Man sentenced in connection with baby’s death

By Jennifer Harr 2 min read

A North Union Township man was sentenced to 23 months in the intermediate punishment program in Fayette County Court on Tuesday for endangering the welfare of a child. James Ray Morrison, 27, pleaded guilty to the lone charge in the assault of 3-month-old Seanna Shrock last month.

Intermediate punishment can include house arrest and is a probationary-type sentence.

Morrison was caring for Shrock between 5:30 and 9 p.m. on March 2, 2007, when the infant got sick and stopped breathing. He told state police that he shook Shrock “a little” before emergency responders were called.

Shrock died two days later, and while a doctor at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh said that the baby was the victim of “an extremely violent assault,” the Allegheny County medical examiner was unable to rule that the child died of injuries associated with being shaken.

District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon said medical examiner Dr. Karl Williams “did not feel safe in saying it was shaken baby (syndrome) because he felt there could have been other things going on to cause her death.”

“In this particular child, he thought there may have been a blood clotting or something wrong with the blood,” Vernon said previously. “More than likely, for our own level of comfort, we’ll seek a second opinion.”

Morrison was initially charged with aggravated and simple assault, but those charges were dismissed as part of the plea deal. Vernon noted that the child’s mother agreed to the plea deal, and felt that Morrison had done nothing wrong.

Vernon also said that a 911 dispatcher told Morrison to shake the child when he called for help.

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