Born To Serve

Post 0170

Westlee Yates, Tennessee inmate 551122, born 1989, incarceration intake in 2014 at age 25, scheduled for release May 2059

Murder

A Benton County Tennessee man pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 48 years in the death of his girlfriend’s 7-month-old son.  Westlee Yates, 26, will serve the sentence without the possibility of parole, according to Circuit Court records.

A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent testified at Yates’ preliminary hearing  earlier about Yates’ statements to investigators. Yates told investigators that 7-month-old Joseph Hilliard stopped breathing and didn’t wake up while in Yates’ care in August. Yates said he tried to wake up the baby by slapping him in the face. Yates wasn’t able to tell police how many times he hit the baby or how hard.

An autopsy found that Joseph Hilliard died of blunt-force trauma to the head.

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