St. Cloud man gets 5-year probation sentence for manslaughter charge

A man convicted of second-degree manslaughter after unintentionally causing his seven-month-old son’s death in 2021 will be spending time on probation.

Stearns County court records show Joshua Alan Cox, 37, was sentenced last week to one day in jail, and received full credit. He will now be spending five years on probation.

Cox was charged last year with two counts of second-degree manslaughter. He was convicted of one of the two counts.

As reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, St. Cloud police were called to a medical emergency involving an infant around 3:26 a.m. on Sept. 22, 2021, on the 1700 block of Roosevelt Road.

RELATED: St. Cloud father charged with manslaughter after going to bed drunk with baby who later suffocated

The infant’s mother said her 7-month-old son wasn’t breathing, was cold to the touch and that his face looked “smashed” and “wrong.” Despite life-saving measures by first responders, the boy was pronounced deceased at the scene, according to a criminal complaint. Investigators learned that Cox, the infant’s father, had been taking care of the infant. Court documents state that Cox told police he went to bed with the infant and an older sibling around 11:30 p.m.

Cox added that his wife woke him up when she got home from work and this was the first time he realized the infant wasn’t breathing and was cold to the touch. He said he put the infant on his back before getting in bed with him.

The baby’s mother told police that when she got home, she saw the baby lying on his stomach with Cox’s head on the baby’s back.

A blood sample taken from Cox at 8:20 a.m. showed a blood-alcohol content of .128, according to court documents. Cox admitted to drinking three to four shots of Fireball whiskey but claimed they were spaced out while his wife was at work and denied drinking past 10:30 p.m.

Investigators determined that Cox was “significantly intoxicated” when he got into bed with the infant. Cox said he previously had a drinking problem but believed he limited it to several drinks per night.

Officers at the scene saw Cox seemingly try to hide an empty bottle of Fireball.

While executing a search warrant, officers found multiple bottles of alcohol. The home was also “significantly cluttered and nearly unlivable” due to various other health hazards, court documents state.

The infant’s cause of death was ruled to be positional asphyxia due to unsafe sleeping conditions.

Court documents also note that less than a month before his death, the infant had fallen from the bed and hit his head on a broken piggy bank on the floor. The infant needed to be taken to the emergency room.

The post St. Cloud man gets 5-year probation sentence for manslaughter charge first appeared on KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News.