Duluth man gets 40 years in daughter’s suffocation

Published 10:59 am Thursday, November 13, 2014

DULUTH — A Duluth man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for suffocating his 1-year-old daughter out of frustration with her crying.

Thirty-year-old Christopher Peterson received the maximum sentence Wednesday in St. Louis County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in October. He apologized during the sentencing hearing and said he will feel remorse every day.

Peterson’s daughter Layna died in July. He told police in a statement that he frequently stopped his daughter’s crying by placing his hand over her mouth and pinching her nostrils closed.

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He will have the possibility of supervised release after serving two-thirds of his sentence, or about 27 years.