Gardipee toddler-death sentencing Aug. 21

The second of two defendants charged in the death of an 11-month-old boy in their care pleaded guilty in federal District Court in Great Falls Monday to the lesser of two charges in the indictment, and the judge set her sentencing hearing for Aug. 21.

Cecilia Rose Gardipee pleaded guilty to shaking Kaidynce Small for about 90 seconds in the early morning of Oct. 21. He died that morning.

Under the plea agreement, the prosecution will drop the first charge against Gardipee, second-degree murder.

Her boyfriend, Garret “Kirby” LaFromboise, who fathered the child with another woman while he and Gardipee were temporarily broken up, pleaded guilty in January to sticking his finger down his son’s throat and hitting him in the stomach when the child would not stop crying.

The murder charge filed against LaFromboise also was dropped as part of a plea agreement.

Judge Brian Morris last month sentenced LaFromboise to 13 years and four months in prison for the assault, which has a longer-than-normal sentence because the charge included the fact that the victim is a minor.

Gardipee faces the same sentencing range as LaFromboise, 10 years to life.

Morris ordered a presentencing investigation which federal judges use in deciding the appropriate sentence based on issues including the details of the crime, the defendant’s history and whether the defendant accepts responsibility and shows remorse.

Gardipee told law enforcement officers that she had been drinking while she and LaFromboise watched the child, part of a custody arrangement between LaFromboise and the child’s mother. She said she became frustrated when Kaidynce would not stop crying, and that turned to anger and she shook him for about 90 seconds.