BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — More than eight years after the death of 7-month-old Tanner Chappele, a Brevard County judge has accepted a no contest plea from the child’s father to a charge of manslaughter.
David Chappele was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by 13 years of drug offender probation.
Prosecutors said there was enough fentanyl in the baby’s system to kill an adult.
Chappele had a prescription for fentanyl patches and was wearing them the night of Tanner’s death. The baby was in bed with his parents when he went into cardiac arrest.
Chappele’s attorney pointed out that experts disagreed on how the child may have come into contact with the drug. The initial thought was that it was skin-to-skin contact.
Chappele, 36, didn’t move to sentencing quietly.
“My son should have not been in my bed. She put him in it,” Chappele shouted in court.
Tanner’s mother, Jessica Strickland, who previously received two years of community control followed by drug offender probation in her son’s death, told the court she believed Chappele should have received a stiffer sentence.
“He’s still pointing the finger at me, but we got justice served today,” Strickland said.
She has been sober for six years.
“I will carry this loss for the rest of my life. I will never stop grieving for him,” Strickland said.”
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