A Baltimore City judge denied defense counsel’s motion to modify the 18-year prison sentence of a man charged with the murder of his five-month-old daughter in 2015.
Jeffrey McKinney accepted an Alford plea in January 2017 for second-degree murder in connection to the death of Norann Lee Torbert on Oct. 3, 2015, on the 6400 block of Sefton Avenue. In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit any criminal wrongdoing but acknowledges that the prosecution has sufficient evidence to convince a judge or jury of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
On Sept. 19, McKinney appeared before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Shannon Avery for a motion to modify his sentence, which she denied. The case was closed, once again, according to the Maryland Judiciary website.
According to WBALTV, the defendant confessed to putting a pillow on top of Torbert after becoming frustrated with her crying. When McKinney found Torbert unresponsive, he put his daughter on the edge of a mattress that was against a wall, covered her with pillows, and then asked family members if they had seen her.
A family member performed CPR on the baby until she was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
