James White, 45, on Monday pleaded guilty to the murder of an infant in April last year. The infant’s name was Kathy White, and she was 5 1/2 weeks old.
White entered a guilty plea to murder in the second degree, according to a press release from the Alaska Department of Law. He delivered his plea to the Juneau Superior Court.
Superior Court Judge Amy Mead has scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dec. 19. White faces between 20 years and 99 years, with a maximum of 40 years of active jail time to serve.
The case was prosecuted by Alaska Assistant Attorney General Bailey Woolfstead and investigated by the Juneau Police Department.
White was arrested in Juneau in November last year on a charge of murder. At the time, he was being held in Lemon Creek Correctional Center for domestic violence assault.
According to the Juneau Police Department, the arrest was the result of a seven-month-long investigation into the death of Kathy White.
Juneau Police Department and firefighters had responded to a report of an infant not breathing in a hotel room on Trout Street in April last year. White was in the room, and police reported him being as the infant’s caregiver.
The infant was transported to Bartlett Regional Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
According to the charging document, the infant “had a skull fracture and bleeding on the brain.” After an autopsy, the State Medical Examiner’s office in Anchorage classified the death as a homicide.
Prior to White’s arrest in November, police confronted him about the infant’s death, and he said, “in essence it wasn’t planned out,” according to previous Empire reporting.
White also pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault in November.
Reach reporter Matthew Schmitz at matthew.schmitz@juneauempire.com.
Correction: This article has been updated to correct the age of Kathy White.
