Man sentenced for 2021 Independence killing of 3-year-old on Christmas Eve
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 24-year-old Independence man was sentenced this week for the killing of a 3-year-old child on Christmas Eve in 2021.
Jackson County Judge Jennifer Phillips sentenced Ashton Cleveland to 10 years on the charge of involuntary manslaughter, four years for leaving the scene of an accident and one year for second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. All sentences are set to run concurrently with each other.
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Cleveland entered a guilty plea on all counts back in October.
On Dec. 24, 2021, in Independence, police said a 3-year-old died after picking up Cleveland’s gun and it went off. Officials said he then fled and got into a hit-and-run crash that left another family injured.
The Radford family was headed home to make cookies on Christmas Eve when police said Cleveland hit them as he drove near the intersection of Truman and Nolan roads. The wreck sent the Radford family spinning into an electrical box.
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Police said shortly before the hit-and-run, Cleveland had a gun in his lap that Benjamin Cope Jr. grabbed before it went off and a bullet struck the child.
