By Alyse Parks
A 2011 parole date has been given to Steven Ray James of Logan, who killed his son in 1986, but told police the child had been kidnapped.
James, who killed his 3-month-old son, will be released on Oct. 25, 2011, said the president of the state Board of Pardons, Mike Sibbett, to the Associated Press.
James told police his son, Steven Roy, had been kidnapped from a grocery store parking lot.
Three months later, the infant”s body was found in the Bear River marshes and James was charged.
After seven years of denying the crime, James admitted that he killed his son on accident by shaking him because he would not stop crying.
James, who is now 52- years old, will have served 25 years in prison when he”s released.
“These are hard decisions,” told Sibbett to the Associated Press. “This one was particularly difficult because it involved such a tragic loss of a helpless child, and violated the whole community”s trust.”
In 1989, James was convicted of capital homicide, but the Utah Supreme Court reversed the conviction.
In 1993, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and evidence tampering and was sentenced to consecutive terms of one to 15 years in prison, with credit for the years he spent in jail awaiting trial.
James had been a “model prisoner” and showed “an appropriate amount of remorse,” Sibbett said to the Associated Press.
James will be on parole for at least three years after his release.
