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Orange County father spared from death penalty for beating his 5-year-old son to death

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An Orange County jury decided to spare a man from the death sentence for beating his five-year-old son to death.

Darrell Avant Sr. was convicted last week of killing Darell Avant, Jr. after the boy got in trouble at school.

Avant Sr. will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors said Avant Sr. abused the trust he had as the boy's father.

One of the big claims the defense made revolves around Avant Sr.’s waiting 30 minutes after the beating to call 911. During the trial, prosecutors used Avant Sr.’s Google searches as evidence. They said he searched, “how to tell if an infant is dead,” before calling 911.

This week, jurors and the judge heard from family, a teacher and doctors.

A doctor that testified Monday said Avant Sr. may not have been able to recognize that his son was dead.

On Tuesday, a neurologist testified Avant Sr. was his mental problems to avoid the death penalty. A day earlier, a different doctor blamed Avant Sr.’s murderous rage on a brain injury and that his cognitive abilities are not as good as they should be.

The child's mother also took the witness stand and said she wished she could go back and pick him up from school herself instead of leaving him with a killer.

"He meant the world, he meant the world to me. And no words, no words can explain how much he meant to me," said Jessica Phillips.

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