Man Given 30 Years For Killing Baby

Tue., Aug. 27, 1996

From Staff And Wire Reports

A Spokane Valley man who admitted fatally injuring his former girlfriend’s 10-month-old child was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison.

Superior Court Judge Neal Q. Rielly cited Michael Rydholm’s lack of remorse and the vulnerability of the victim in handing down the sentence outside the usual range of 10 to 13 years.

Against his attorney’s advice, Rydholm pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last May.

He had been baby-sitting the child for Dannette York, the infant’s mother.

Deputy Prosecutor Dawn Cortez said Rydholm, a 24-year-old bookkeeper, shook the baby and threw her into another room because the child wouldn’t stop crying.

Rydholm told detectives the baby was “being fussy” while he tried to watch a Mariners game on television.

He was arrested for first-degree assault Oct. 4 when the child was brought to Sacred Heart Medical Center with a fractured skull. The charge was upgraded when she died.

Outside the courtroom Monday, Dannette York said she was pleased with the sentence.

“I at least wanted him to stay in long enough for all of his kids to be grown up so that they’re old enough to know what he did to a small baby,” York said.

Spokane County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser praised Cortez for being “tenacious in seeing that justice was done in this case.”

, DataTimes

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