26-year-old Montana man sentenced for smothering infant

MISSOULA, Mont. – A 26-year-old Montana man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to smothering a 5-month-old infant last year.

The Missoulian reported ( Marc Allen Palmer was sentenced on Tuesday. He received five years of suspended prison time and will be eligible for parole in just under nine years. He pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and felony criminal endangerment in May.

Palmer was charged with smothering the child in March 2016. The child belonged to a woman who was staying with Palmer at his mother’s house.

Palmer has a juvenile criminal record of child rape and child molestation in Washington state, where he was found to have repeatedly abused an 8-year-old girl when he was 15.