WILKES-BARRE — There are still unknown reasons for why Jacob Emmanuel Campbell shook violently his 2-month-old son, Jayceon Campbell, leading to fatal injuries in November 2022.
“We still don’t have answers,” Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney Carly Levandoski said at Campbell’s sentencing hearing on Thursday.
Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky Jr. gave Campbell, 26, previously of Cleveland Street, Plains Township, a 16-to-32-year prison sentence for third-degree murder. Campbell admitted guilt to the charge on Nov. 11.
“It is a tragedy and one that should not have occurred,” Levandoski said.
Plains Township police stated in court records that Jayceon Campbell was first treated at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center and then taken to Geisinger Medical Center near Danville, where the baby died on Nov. 20, 2022.
Doctors who examined and treated Jayceon Campbell informed detectives that the brain injuries were consistent with violent shaking, according to court records.
Jacob Campbell told detectives he was playing video games when his son woke up and he gave the baby a bottle, then went back to playing video games before noticing blood on the infant’s nose, as stated in court records.
Campbell dialed 911, prompting a response from emergency medical technicians and police to his residence on Nov. 10. A police officer was the first to arrive and found the baby unresponsive on a kitchen table.
Campbell said he didn't know what had happened as he was at home with the infant for the day while the baby’s mother was at work.
