A Columbia man has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after he was accused of giving a 14-month-old Orangeburg boy a bear hug so hard he stopped breathing.
27-year-old Robert Kemp will be sentenced in June after entering his guilty plea Thursday. He faces up to five years in prison.
Prosecutors say Kemp was babysitting when the two started wrestling. Kemp gave the boy, Jaylen Harris, a bear hug, then put him into his crib for a nap.
Authorities say Kemp realized a short time later he hadn’t heard the boy move, went into his room and discovered him not breathing.
Forensics determined the baby died from asphyxiation.
WCIV-TV cited an Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office report that said Jaylen was given “a bear hug, squeezing the victim so tight that the victim stopped breathing as a result causing the toddler’s death.”
Orangeburg County Chief Deputy Coroner Sean Fogle told WBTW that the baby, Jaylen Harris, died soon after the incident in 2013.
Robert Christian Kemp was arrested on July 15 2014 on a charge of involuntary manslaughter. Fogle said that the investigation into the baby’s death took some time.
The Orangeburg County Coroner’s Office says Jaylen Harris died from asphyxiation in June 2013. Kemp was charged more than a year later.
