Man sentenced to up to 10 years in Canyon County child abuse case

A Pennsylvania man on Monday was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for abusing the child of the Nampa woman he was dating, according to press release from Canyon County prosecutors.

Jeffrey Byerly Jr., 28, in September of last year pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child in the June 2016 case. His sentence includes a three and a half year fixed prison sentence, followed by six and a half years indeterminate. He must also submit a DNA sample to the Idaho database, cease any contact with the child and the child’s mother, and pay a $5,000 civil penalty in addition to court costs.

Byerly was arrested last summer following an investigation by Nampa police where he was found to have physically abused the 3-year-old child of the woman he was dating. According to the investigation, Byerly was upset with the child for finding a marijuana pipe and struck the child multiple times on the head with an open hand as punishment.

Byerly also told police he swung the child by his ankles “like a pendulum,” according to the release. At one point, he bashed the child’s head on a dresser after losing his balance.

According to the release, medical reports for the child said the injuries “caused the child’s head to swell so much that he was unable to open his eyes or see normally for 2 weeks. Test results later showed swelling of the brain and a loss of blood into the area between the scalp and the skull as a result of a detached scalp.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2017 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Man sentenced to up to 10 years in Canyon County child abuse case."