The following is a brief of the full story. For the full version, see Monday's print edition of the Boonville Daily News.

Cory Gaddy, charged in the June 2006 death of a 5-year-old child, received a seven year sentence in Cooper County Circuit Court Monday morning.

In a matter of 15 minutes, Judge Robert Koffman reviewed the status of the case with the defendent, and pronounced the sentence, which will be served in the Department of Corrections.

Cooper County Prosecuting Attorney Doug Abele said the case had been discussed at length with the victim’s family. “They are in favor of the disposition,” Abele said. Dead from the incident is Colby Bolte, age 5, who died in the family’s home in Bunceton from injuries sustained on June 29, 2006.

After reading Gaddy his rights, Koffman reviewed the allegations of manslaughter in the first degree for the incident. Using  the precedent of the Alford Plea, from a 1970 North Carolina case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, Koffman asked Gaddy how he was pleading.

By pleading guilty under these conditions, Gaddy, 32, was not admitting the act, but admitting that sufficient evidence exists with which the prosecution could likely convince a judge or jury to find him guilty.

Upon receiving an Alford plea from a defendant, the court may immediately pronounce the defendant guilty and impose sentence as if the defendant had otherwise been convicted of the crime.

Koffman also established that by taking the plea, Gaddy was forfeiting his right to go to trial. The case had been moved to Pettis County on a change of venue, with a jury trial scheduled for January 2009.

Before pronouncing the sentence, Koffman reviewed the charges of the case.
“The allegations state that you became angry at Colby, because he was sick with vomiting and diahreah,” said Koffman. “There were wounds to his head which lead to the swelling of his brain and caused his death.”