Toilet Slayer of Stepson Escapes Chair, Gets Life
A man convicted of murdering his 2-year-old stepson by plunging him headfirst into a toilet was sentenced today to life in prison without possibility of parole for 25 years.
The judge followed the jury’s recommendation in sentencing Thomas Coe, 23, for murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of Bradley McGee, an emotional case that brought changes in state law and prosecution of several social workers.
“I feel the court has no choice in this matter,” Polk Circuit Judge Randall McDonald said during the brief sentencing procedure, citing the likelihood a death sentence would be overturned.
The judge also gave Coe 15 years for aggravated abuse, to run consecutive to the life sentence.
Jurors who convicted Coe on July 30 in Ft. Myers, where the trial was moved because of intense publicity, recommended life in prison instead of death by electrocution after hearing testimony that Coe was himself abused as a child.
Bradley died of massive head injuries on July 28, 1989, only two months after he was ordered returned from state foster care to Coe and his wife, Sheryl McGee Coe.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
