CRIME: MAN GIVEN PROBATION FOR SLAPPING CHILD

JACKSON, Mo. -- A Cape Girardeau man accused of repeatedly slapping a 5-month-old boy for "whining" was put on five years probation Monday.

Cape Girardeau County prosecutor Morley Swingle had asked Circuit Judge John Grimm to sentence Dale E. Nenninger to three years in prison after he was found guilty of a class C felony of child abuse. However, a presentence investigation by the Missouri Probation and Parole board recommended probation.

"So I can see the judge's logic," Swingle said.

Nenninger, 41, had agreed to watch Kirsten Holland's 5-month-old son while she and another friend were moving on March 11, the prosecutor said. Holland and Nenninger had known each other as friends for six years, so she had said she trusted Nenninger.

Returning 30 minutes later, Holland found her son crying and visibly injured.

She took the boy to Southeast Missouri Hospital where doctors determined he had suffered at least three separate blows to his head and face. The child's injuries included bruised lips, cuts inside his upper lip, a bruised right ear and other injuries.

Nenninger had originally told Holland, and later investigators, that the injuries were caused when the boy fell off his lap onto a carpeted floor when they both fell asleep.

However, in a second written statement to police, Nenninger wrote that the boy was "whining," so he hit him with the back of his hand three times across his face.

During his bench trial, Nenninger recanted his confession.

"I accept the responsibility for my actions, but I wouldn't hit a child," Nenninger told Judge Grimm during his hearing Monday.