DeWitt man pleads guilty in tot's deathST. JOHNS – Kasie Arbon has forgiven her husband, who admitted today that he caused the death of her 3-year-old daughter.
Outside a Clinton County courtroom today, shortly after Jon Arbon, 24, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and first-degree child abuse, the 31-year-old DeWitt woman said Arbon never intended to harm her daughter, Tricia.
“I can forgive him because he didn’t mean to hurt her,” Kasie said, adding: “He has to live with this for the rest of his life. He will punish himself more than anything.”
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At today's plea hearing, Arbon, wearing a yellow jail uniform, told Judge Randy Tahvonen that on Jan. 23, Tricia, his stepdaughter, “was getting loud” in the living room.
“I overreacted, and I pushed her,” Arbon said in a quiet voice.
ricia’s head struck the edge of a coffee table, and she was knocked unconscious. She died the next day.
Arbon first reported that Tricia had fallen down a flight of stairs while he was in a bathroom, police said. He was alone with her at the time. A few weeks later, Arbon admitted what he had done, police said, and he was arrested.
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