An Iowa man will spend the next 15 years in prison after admitting he killed a 10-month-old boy he had been left to look after for the night.
Gunner Michael Jones, 28, entered guilty pleas Friday to one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of child endangerment, according to Hamilton County court records reviewed by Law&Crime. He was sentenced almost immediately and ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to the child’s estate.
The case dates back to the early morning hours of April 16, 2023, at a home on 3rd Street in Webster City, a small community roughly 75 miles northwest of Des Moines.
Just before 2 a.m., Webster City police and paramedics responded to a 911 call placed by the infant’s mother, who reported that her son had gone unresponsive, turned blue and felt cold, according to a court affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. Neither the mother nor the child has been publicly identified.
“The infant was provided emergency medical care and transported to Van Diest Medical Center,” the charging document states. “At the hospital, along with the observations of the medical emergency, unusual bruising consistent with inflicted child abuse was observed.”
The boy was later flown to Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, where he died from his injuries, police said.
What followed was a months-long investigation. An autopsy ultimately concluded the child died from multiple blunt-force injuries to the head, the affidavit says.
By November 2024, Jones was facing a first-degree murder charge, with prosecutors alleging he acted with “malice aforethought” and killed the infant “willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation.”
Investigators zeroed in on Jones after determining he and the child’s mother were the only adults in the house that night. “Ultimately, the Defendant and [the child’s mother] informed law enforcement that there were no apparent medical issues with [the boy] when [the child’s mother] went to sleep and that the Defendant remained awake in the residence with [the boy],” the affidavit states. “This timeline leaves the Defendant as the only individual alone with [the boy] prior to the injuries being inflicted.”
Jones pleaded not guilty in December 2024, according to a report from Mason City CBS affiliate KIMT. His trial had initially been set for February of this year but was pushed back to July, according to The Daily Freeman-Journal.
When July arrived, prosecutors dropped the murder charge in favor of the child endangerment count, and Jones entered his guilty plea shortly after.
