A judge denied a motion to suppress evidence Tuesday for a Manhattan man facing first-degree murder.
Andrew Gibson is being charged with the killing of 3-month-old Serenity Reich in the 500 block of Stone Creek Drive on May 5, 2016.
Gibson’s defense argued investigators were not invited into Gibson’s home and said body cameras should’ve been deactivated.
In a November 2016 preliminary hearing, Riley County Police Department Detective Bryan Johnson testified that Gibson was watching after Reich and two other children in his apartment that evening. The mother was in Topeka for the day at the time of the incident.
Initially, Gibson told the detective it was an “ordinary day” and that after he’d fed the baby and put her in her crib to sleep, she was found unresponsive when she was checked on two hours later. But after further questioning, the story changed.
The second version of Gibson’s account stated that one of the other children fell over the infant. After that, Gibson later said he’d accidentally rolled over her while they were both sleeping in a bed.
It was after these statements Gibson was arrested.
An autopsy completed on May 7 in Kansas City revealed small marks on the infant’s scalp and results indicated Reich could have died from asphyxiation, as a result of her head being forcibly pressed down upon.
A jury trial is set for Jan. 16.
Routson back in jail
A Manhattan man sentenced to jail in March 2016 for vehicular homicide will be locked up again for probation violation due to failed drug tests.
Ryan Routson was sentenced to six months in prison Wednesday. He’d served a year in jail for previous charges.
Routson failed to observe a stop sign at the intersection of Tuttle Creek Boulevard and Tuttle Terrace in May of 2014, colliding with a vehicle driven by a pregnant woman.
The woman was 22-weeks pregnant and the baby died as a result of the crash.
On Feb. 16, Routson pleaded no contest to the charges.
Had the case gone to trial, the state notified the court that it would have presented evidence that Routson was traveling at an excessive rate of speed and was in the possession of methamphetamine and a syringe upon his arrest.
