Kansas man sentenced to nearly 57 years in death of 2-year-old daughter who went days without food

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas man whose 2-year-old daughter died after going days without food while he was passed out drunk has been sentenced to nearly 57 years in prison.

The sentence ordered Friday was the maximum that could be imposed after Jeffrey Exon was convicted in April of charges that included aggravated child endangerment and first-degree murder in the commission of a felony, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

Exon, a 47-year-old who goes by the name of James, called 911 on Jan. 5. 2021, telling a dispatcher that his daughter, Aurora Exon, had stopped breathing. He also said she recently had been “starving herself.”

She was cold to the touch when found, and appeared to have been dead for several days, Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay said. The coroner blamed her death on a form of malnutrition called marasmus.

Five empty liquor bottles were found in Exon’s bedroom, investigators said. They determined that Exon would not feed or attend to his children for days because of his addiction issues.

Exon’s 6-year-old son, who was 4 when his sister died, testified at trial that his dad locked them in their rooms for several days without food while he “slept.”

Seonaid Nichols, the children’s mother, said she agreed to give James Exon custody of the children because her living conditions didn’t allow her to take care of them.

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