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20 Years For New Rochelle Man Convicted Of Killing 2-Year-Old Son

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Westchester County man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for killing his own 2-year-old son.

Richard Leak, 32, of New Rochelle, received his punishment after being convicted in March of first-degree manslaughter, Westchester County prosecutors announced.

On Jan. 9, 2011, prosecutors said Leak called his live-in girlfriend who was not at home and told her that their son, Khalil Leak, was not breathing.

The girlfriend then called a downstairs neighbor and asked her to check on Khalil. The neighbor went upstairs, found the boy unresponsive in apartment and called 911.

The boy was taken to the hospital where he later died, prosecutors said.

A few days later, Leak was arrested.

"Extensive detective and forensic pathology work by both the New Rochelle Police Department and the Westchester County Medical Examiner were instrumental in the conviction and ultimate sentence that this defendant received. The severity of the injuries, along with multiple and conflicting stories as to how the child sustained those fatal injuries, belied the defendant's protestations that his own son's death was just 'an accident,'" Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore said in a news release.

He was sentenced as a predicate violent felony offender, prosecutors said.

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