A New Tazewell man and his girlfriend plead guilty and have been sentenced in connection to a three-year-old’s death.

In October 2022, the New Tazewell Police Department went to a home on Heritage Road for a young boy who was choking, and he was taken to the Claiborne County Hospital, where he was unresponsive and intubated. He later died from his injuries. The child’s father, Aaron Smith, told officers that the child “fell while eating and he found the child unresponsive”.

Police say the boy’s injuries, which included a large bruise to his face, a long bruise to his spine, bruises and scratches on both buttocks, a bruise on the top of his head and bruises to his legs and arms, were inconsistent with a single fall. A doctor says that the child had “subdural brain bleeding and this his injuries could not be caused from an accident.”

The boy was in the sole care of Smith and his girlfriend, Alexis Payne. Both of their statements were inconsistent and would not explain the events that they reported.

Yesterday (Wednesday), Smith pleaded guilty to especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault and first-degree murder in connection to the boy’s death. He was sentenced to life in prison plus six consecutive years. Payne also entered a guilty plea to aggravated child neglect and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.