A Hibbing man has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of his 1-year-old stepson.
Joseph Thomas Ricketts III, 30, received an 86-month sentence Friday in St. Louis County District Court in Hibbing after pleading guilty last month.
Ricketts has been in jail since his arrest last year. He received credit for the 391 days he has spent in jail. He was charged with unintentional second-degree murder while committing or attempting to commit malicious punishment of a child and first-degree manslaughter. The murder charge was dismissed.
A medical examiner determined that Aiden Richard Parks died on Jan. 27, 2008, of blunt-force trauma to his abdomen. Ricketts told a Hibbing police investigator that his stepson vomited while he was playing "airplane" with him the day of his death. He said the boy vomited again when he was rocking him. He put the boy in the crib and left the room between 1:30 and 1:45 p.m. Ricketts' mother then came to the residence and noticed the boy wasn't breathing. She called 911.
When Ricketts entered the guilty plea, he stated that he didn't remember the entire incident because he was on drugs.
