Pensylvania Crimewatch notified that a man left his toddler son to die after crashing during a shoplifting getaway attempt. The 28-year-old man now faces up to 30 years in prison but may serve as few as eight and a half years. He was convicted for murder for abandoning his injured son and running away. The offence that happened in Bucks County in October 2017, resulted in the two-year-old boy dying from a skull fracture.
The toddler was placed in the car without a seatbelt
6ABC reported that the incident came after Christopher D. Kuhn attempted to steal from Walmart. Instore security tried to stop him, but he took his son, Qadan Trievel, and ran outside to his jeep. After concealing the number plate, he took off with security in pursuit. He had placed his son in the jeep with him but didn't strap him in. Khun drove fast along Route 13 and sped through a red light. At another intersection, he collided with an SUV. The collision was so violent that it threw his toddler out the car. NJ.com noted that the vehicle rolled over and partially landed on another car.
Khun left his son to die alone and ran away
Instead of assisting his child, Khun paused briefly next to the boy and then ran away. First responders arrived to find the child "pale, motionless and not breathing." Emergency workers rushed him to a local hospital but he was pronounced dead from a skull fracture. The court noted that the man did nothing to try and help his child.
Shoplifting offence was over a $228 Vizio sound bar
When challenged by Walmart security, Khun was trying to get a Vizio sound bar out the store. It was worth $228. Once apprehended and in court, he was very sorry about his son and blamed a drug addiction for making him do the crime in Walmart. However, the court wasn't sympathetic.
Judge Robert O. Baldi of Bucks County Common Pleas Court said, during the hearing that "It was not an accident," and that he acted purely out of his own self-interest.
NJ.com pointed out that Khun had a string of other offences in his past. In 2016 he pleaded guilty to threatening the mother of his now dead son. He also faced previous shoplifting charges. Deputy District Attorney Robert D. James asked the court for a harsh sentence as the accused "had a criminal history including theft, fraud, terroristic threats against Qadan's mother, endangering the welfare of a child, resisting arrest and violating a domestic violence restraining order filed against him," 6ABC noted.