Fort Drum soldier sentenced for infant's death

ORT DRUM (AP) -- A Fort Drum soldier wounded in Afghanistan has been sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison for killing a 4-month-old girl he and his wife were trying to adopt by throwing the baby into a crib.

Watertown media outlets report that 24-year-old Jeffrey Sliker of Middletown, R.I., told the judge that his 2-year-old son had kept him awake until 3 a.m. on the day last March when Laurne Clark, also known as Mollie Sliker, died from blunt force trauma at the couple's home near the Army post in northern New York.

Sliker pleaded guilty Jan. 31 to second-degree murder. He admitted to causing the baby's fatal injuries by tossing her into her crib, then doing it again when she kept crying.

Sliker and his wife had been looking after the baby under a court-approved adoption plan.