Security Guard Sentenced in 5-Year-Old Boy’s Accidental Shooting Death
Los Angeles CA March 18 2021
A licensed security guard who left a loaded gun inside a bedroom in a Leimert Park home, where his mother’s 5-year-old foster son fatally shot himself while playing with the weapon, is on home confinement with a long stretch of probation also ahead.
Jaylin Burdette, 27, was sentenced Friday under an agreement with prosecutors in which he pleaded to criminal storage of a firearm and child abuse resulting in the death of a child.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Armenui Amy Ashvanian sentenced Burdette to 180 days of jail time with the option for home confinement with electronic monitoring. The judge also imposed a total of five years of probation and ordered Burdette to complete one year of child abuse-related classes. He is also barred from owning or possessing any weapons or using any alcohol or drugs during the term of his probation.
In the early morning hours of Nov. 14, 2019, after celebrating his birthday at his mother’s home the night before, the defendant found a loaded gun in the alley behind her residence. He placed the firearm in a document container in the closet of the bedroom where his mother’s foster son slept and played, according to prosecutors.
Six days later, the boy fatally wounded himself while playing with the loaded gun and was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.
`We allege a tragedy occurred because we allege there was a failure to follow one of the most basic principles of law regarding guns and safety here in California. We allege a gun was not safely stored and that it led to a 5-year-old who shot himself and died,” City Attorney Mike Feuer said when announcing the original charges. “It’s a tragedy for everyone involved, and we allege it was an avoidable tragedy.”
