COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – A 42-year-old Coldwater man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing a 7-month old boy last year. Steven Shaw was sentenced Monday in Branch County Circuit Court, and received 285 months to 50 years for first degree child abuse, but was also sentenced to mandatory life without parole for the death of 7-month old Carson Burm in Coldwater in the spring of 2014.
Shaw was found guilty last month on all counts in Branch County Circuit Court following a four day trial. The jury of seven women and five men deliberated two and a half hours before returning the verdicts.
Shaw was living with Burm’s mother in an apartment in Coldwater and he was left to care for Carson while the baby’s mom went to work on May 29, 2014. That afternoon, the infant boy stopped breathing and he was pronounced dead the next day after being airlifted to Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo. Two days later, Shaw was arrested. An autopsy showed the victim’s death was the result of blunt force head trauma.
