NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — A Brooklyn man was sentenced on Friday to three and a half to 10 years in prison for fatally injuring his girlfriend’s infant daughter while trying to keep her quiet when he was babysitting, prosecutors said.
Ricardo Price, 26, of Bedford-Stuyvesant pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter on April 12 in relation to the 2021 death of Royalty Kemp.
“Royalty Kemp was a precious infant entrusted by her mother to the defendant’s care. Instead of ensuring the child’s safety, he caused head injuries so severe she died,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.
On June 22, 2021, Price was watching the baby in an apartment at 93 Lewis Ave. after her mother left the child in his care for the night.
Prosecutors said that the child began to cry while sitting in Price’s lap, prompting him to repeatedly shake his leg to get her to quiet down. This “caused the child to bounce off his knee multiple times and the child’s head to strike a video game controller” that he was holding.
The next day, Kemp’s mother returned and noticed that she was lethargic and unable to eat. By afternoon, she was unresponsive.
Kemp’s mother and Price took the baby girl to NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull where she was diagnosed with a skull fracture.
She was transferred to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue where she died on July 2.
An autopsy by the medical examiner’s office determined that the girl’s death was caused by abusive head trauma with numerous recent injuries including skull fractures. She also had underlying hemorrhaging to the brain and parts of the spinal cord, authorities said.
“Our hearts continue to be with the child’s mother and loved ones as they grieve her tragic loss,” Gonzalez said.