CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte father will spend the next 25 years in prison after he pleaded guilty Thursday to killing his 2-year-old son.
Last February, investigators told Channel 9 that Jackobie Morgan's spine was broken after he was assaulted by his father.
Eyewitness News reporter Tina Terry spoke to Cheryl Jordan, Jackobie's mother, after she attended the ruling Thursday.
Jordan said her son now has his justice.
"I just wish it wouldn't have happened this way. No mother wants her child taken from them like this; No mother," Jordan said.
Jordan said that her son was a happy and healthy little boy until a visit with his father, Travis Pemberton, last year.
"It was heartbreaking. It hurt, because I would have never thought his father would have hurt him. That's his only child," Jordan said.
During that visit, police were called to Pemberton's home, and they found the boy unresponsive.
A medical report later said the boy died from blunt force injuries that broke his spine.
"She sent a healthy, happy baby to spend two weeks with his father, and she gets back a deceased baby, and that's not right," Debbie Jordan, Jackobie's grandmother said.
In court Thursday, attorneys said Pemberton admitted to police that he spanked the boy after he wet the bed. Pemberton accepted a deal and plead guilty to second-degree murder.
He will spend 25 to 31 years in prison.
Terry reported that Pemberton cried in the courtroom during the proceedings.
His attorney said he loved his son and is still coming to grips with the fact that his actions killed the boy.
WSOC
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