FOLEY, Minn. — A former St. Joseph man was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing a 7-month-old boy in nearby Rice in 2018 – on top of killing a 2-year-old boy in St. Cloud in 2015. James Wood, 31, had pleaded guilty in December to second-degree unintentional murder for the death in Rice. He had been spending the weekend with a girlfriend. The next morning she found the child not breathing and bruised. Wood was gone. The older brother said that “James hit him” and “he is naughty.” It turned out that Wood was already in jail in the next county for driving drunk northbound in southbound lanes of Highway 10. The 25-year murder sentence was more than judicial guidelines because, said the judge, another child witnessed the murder.
2015 Infanticde
Wood was sentenced concurrently in Elk River to 18 years for the death of a 2-year-old in 2015. The 15-year and 18-year sentences will be served concurrently. In the 2015 case, Wood had been watching the boy while his mother was at work. The boy died of a stroke associated with multiple blunt force injuries, an autopsy concluded. Wood pleaded guilty.
