Texarkana Man Sentenced to Life for Killing 2-year-old Boy

NEW BOSTON (AP) — A northeast Texas jury has sentenced a Texarkana, Texas, man to life imprisonment for murder in the fatal beating of a 2-year-old neighbor boy. The Bowie County jury gave Jimmy Paul Mahone, 33, the maximum sentence on Friday, one day after finding him guilty of murder in the death of Dalton Wayne Slaton. A medical examiner determined the boy had a skull fracture and numerous other broken bones. Prosecutors told jurors that Mahone apparently had picked the boy up by his leg and swung him repeatedly into the hard back of a sofa in his apartment. According to the Texarkana Gazette, witnesses testified that Mahone appeared to be obsessed with the child.