A Vicksburg father will spend 15 years in prison for the shaking death of his infant son.

Circuit Judge Isadore Patrick issued the prison sentence followed by five years’ probation for Jamaro South, 25, during a sentencing hearing Thursday in the death of South’s 6-month-old son Jamaro Carter Jr.

South pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder. State law requires that a sentence of at least 20 years be given for second-degree murder, but also allows a judge descretion to suspend a portion of the sentence.

“I agree with you. I don’t think you intentionally tried to kill your child, but the child is dead,” Patrick said. “Something went on, and the court is concerned with what happened.”

South made no statements during the hearing and spent most of the time standing before the judge gazing at the floor.

Defense Attorney Chris Green asked Patrick to consider the death as manslaughter rather than a murder while considering sentencing.

“We think the facts of this crime fit the constraints of manslaughter, but it also fits the confines of second-degree murder,” Green said.

District Attorney Ricky Smith disagreed.

“This child had two detached retinas. This child had subdural hematomas,” Smith said. “This was not a brief loss of thought process by the defendant. This is in no way in nature manslaughter.”

Smith and police have said South was alone with his infant son Dec. 14, 2013, when the boy was injured and later died of head injuries.

The child’s mother has not made any statements in the case, but was expected to testify on South’s behalf. Patrick said during the sentencing that he received a letter from her supporting South but the letter was not read publicly.

South initially confessed to shaking the 6-month-old because the baby wouldn’t stop crying, but later recanted the confession, according to testimony given by police investigators Lt. Troy Kimble and Bobby Jones at a probable cause hearing in July.

During that hearing, Green contended the infant could have been injured before he was with South.

South is not trained in CPR, and could have injured his son while incorrectly trying to perform the life-saving act, Green said.