BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. — A Blount County jury has convicted a 33-year-old man in the suffocation death of his infant child a decade ago.
Jurors returned the murder verdict Friday against Tony L. Light after a four-day trial in Blount County Circuit Court. He faces a sentence of life in prison without parole.
In 2011, while serving time in a Tennessee prison, Light of Louisville admitted suffocating the child in letters to investigators, according to the Blount County Sheriff's Office.
Authorities found the unresponsive infant in February 2011 in a home in Rockford.
The infant was pronounced dead at Blount Memorial Hospital and investigators said an autopsy showed the cause of death was determined to be suffocation.
The investigation continued as years passed, and several interviews were conducted including ones with Light.
"Recently, while in a Tennessee state prison on unrelated charges, Light sent letters to investigators stating he was responsible for the infant’s death, and how it had occurred while he was on a drug binge," the Blount County Sheriff's Office said in a 2018 release.
Investigators said they then worked with the Blount County District Attorney General's Office and had Light transported to Blount County. After additional questioning, he was charged.