According to a release from the office of Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson, Kenneth Hedgecock was sentenced in Leavenworth County District Court Wednesday to 10 years for involuntary manslaughter and 1.5 years for aggravated endangering a child. The sentences will run consecutively, for a total of 11.5 years, and will also run consecutive to prior sentences he is currently serving.
The release says Hedgecock previously entered a no-contest plea on March 2 to one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of aggravated endangering a child, and was found guilty on both counts.
Thompson’s office says Hedgecock, along with 40-year-old Tara Huerta and 30-year-old Briana R.M. Davis, was charged in connection with the March 26, 2025, death of Davis’ 3-year-old child, who was in the care of Hedgecock and Huerta at the time of the incident. The release says all three defendants have now been convicted in the case.
According to court documents referenced in the release, a Leavenworth Police Department officer was dispatched around 4:32 that morning to an apartment near Limit Street and Martin Luther King Drive for a first-aid assist. Officers found the child on the living room floor while emergency responders performed chest compressions. The child was transported to a Leavenworth hospital, where the child was pronounced dead.
The release says Huerta told investigators Davis had been at the apartment the day before and left the child in their care, and that the child had been sleeping on the couch. The release says Huerta and Hedgecock admitted to using drugs while the child was in the apartment and later noticed the child’s breathing had changed.
Investigators collected evidence from the apartment and submitted it to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation crime lab for testing. The release says swabs from the couch tested positive for methamphetamine and fentanyl, a small baggie with residue found under the couch tested positive for methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl, and a corner tie recovered from a couch cup holder tested positive for methamphetamine.
An autopsy determined the child’s cause of death was acute fentanyl toxicity.
