Kenrick Longsworth jailed for 15 years for manslaughter and wounding of sons

Published by BBNTEAM at August 31, 2024

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Posted: Saturday, August 31, 2024. 12:46 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: Kenrick Longsworth, the stepfather who abused and beat three siblings, killing one of them, back in January of 2020, must serve 15 more years for manslaughter and three years for wounding one of the two surviving brothers, High Court Justice Derick Sylvester ruled on Friday.

Justice Sylvester ordered Longsworth’s sentences to run concurrently to each other and his four years on remand was deducted from his time to serve.

The children’s mother was seen crying in court and left immediately after hearing the sentence handed down for the killing of her 3-year-old boy, Mark Teul.

Longsworth was initially tried for murder and two counts of attempted murder but was found guilty instead of manslaughter and wounding and not guilty of attempted murder for one of the two surviving boys.

Justice Sylvester indicated that his starting point for sentencing Longsworth was 24 years; manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of life in prison but is generally treated more leniently. He then deducted five years for the mitigating and aggravating factors and his remand period of four years, bringing his total years left behind bars to 15 years.

The chief mitigating factor is that he showed remorse and was sorry for what he did – remorse he expressed during his Social Inquiry Report prepared to the court by the social worker. The aggravating factors he listed are two previous convictions for crimes of violence, but the judge was of the view that Longsworth was not a threat to society and so his two sentences are to run concurrently with each other with effect from January 10, 2020.

Longsworth beat all three boys badly, but at trial, Justice Sylvester found that Longsworth was not proven to have intended to kill Mark Teul based on the evidence before the court, despite being caught in a lie. Longsworth himself admitted to hurting the child, but not to intending to kill him.

The court found that he had wounded the older child aged four, but not the younger one, aged two.

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