111 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
White Plains, NY 10601
Tel: (914) 995-3586
Fax: (914) 995-2116
Aug. 13, 2013 -- Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced that Richard "Ricky" Leak (DOB 10/03/80) of 345 Main Street, New Rochelle, New York was sentenced today to a determinate term of twenty years in prison on his March 2013 conviction after a jury trial of:
- one count of Manslaughter in the First Degree, a class "B" Felony
relating to the Jan. 9, 2011 death of his two-year-old son, Khalil Leak.
At approximately 1 a.m. on Jan. 9, 2011, the defendant called his live-in girlfriend who was not at home and reported that the victim was not breathing. The girlfriend then called a downstairs neighbor and asked her to check on the victim.
The neighbor went upstairs and after finding the victim unresponsive in the defendant's apartment, dialed 911 calling for an ambulance.
The two-year-old child was removed by Transcare Ambulance EMT's to Sound Shore Medical Center where he was pronounced dead about one hour later.
Police initiated an investigation into the death and on Jan. 12, 2011 the defendant was arrested.
"Extensive detective and forensic pathology work by both the New Rochelle Police Department and the Westchester County Medical Examiner were instrumental in the conviction and ultimate sentence that this defendant received. The severity of the injuries, along with multiple and conflicting stories as to how the child sustained those fatal injuries, belied the defendant's protestations that his own son's death was just "an accident"," said District Attorney Janet DiFiore.
The defendant was sentenced as a predicate violent felony offender.
Assistant District Attorney Heide Mason, Bureau Chief of the Child Abuse Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Christine Hatfield Deputy Chief of the Child Abuse Bureau, prosecuted the case.
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In compliance with Disciplinary Rule 7-107A of the Code of Professional Responsibility, you are advised that a charge is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
