Father Found Guilty of Killing 3-Month-Old Son for Life Insurance Money

Moussa Sissoko was 22 when he killed his 3-month-old son Shane in 2001. A Montgomery County judge found him guilty of child abuse and murder this week, the Washington Post reports.

Sissoko met Tiffany Paris, Shane’s mom, in 1999 while she was still in high school. When she found out she was pregnant in 2000, he was at college in Florida and asked her to terminate the pregnancy. She did not, and he eventually moved in with her to help raise Shane. According to court records, it was around Shane’s birth that Sissoko got a job at a lock and security company and began pursuing $750,000 life insurance for Shane. He put himself as the sole beneficiary on the policy.

“Any reasonable person is going to ask: ‘Why would you put a $750,000 policy on a newborn infant?'” Judge Michael Mason who ruled alone on the trial asked in court. “It seems to make no sense, just on its face.” Sissoko claimed it was a form of a college savings plan for Shane.

On Sept. 15, 2001, Sissoko was watching Shane while Paris was at work. Two hours after he put the baby to bed, he called 911 because Shane was unresponsive and bleeding from his nose. According to Yahoo! News, Shane was taken to a hospital immediately, but never regained consciousness and was on a ventilator for 10 days before it was removed and he died. “Abusive head trauma … by either shaking and/or causing soft impact trauma to the child,” was determined to be the cause of death.

Sissoko has been in jail since he was originally convicted for his son’s death in 2002. He then appealed, lost, and claimed he’d had ineffective lawyering. He will remain in jail while he waits for a sentence on this re-trial.

Credit: Cosmopolitan