A Vicksburg father accused of shaking his son to death in December will spend 10 years in prison for violating probation by getting arrested and charged with murder, Circuit Judge M. James Chaney ruled Tuesday.

Chaney sentenced Jamaro South Sr., 24, 918 China St., to 10 years in prison followed by five years probation after a hearing Tuesday to determine if there was probable cause to charge South with murder in the shaking death of his 6-month-old son.

Because there was probable cause, the arrest was a violation of his nonadjuticated probation for burglary, Chaney ruled.

South is accused of murder in the death of his son, who was referred to in court Tuesday as Jamaro South Jr. and Jamaro Carter Jr. Police have previously given both names for the child.

South confessed to shaking the 6-month old because the baby wouldn’t stop crying, Vicksburg police Lt. Troy Kimble said during the hearing.

“He even demonstrated how he shook the child,” Kimble said. “He said it was forceful and he said ‘I shook him too hard,”’ Kimble said.

South later recanted the confession, Investigator Bobby Jones said.

“He told me he talked to his uncle and he told him not to confess to that,” Jones said during the hearing.

South was alone with the child on Dec. 14, when the boy was injured, prosecutors and police have said.

“The medical examiner said there would be an immediate change in behavior with this type of injury,” Assistant District Attorney Bert Carraway said.

Defense attorney Chris Green contended the child could have been injured before he was with South and added that the father attempted to perform CPR on the child.

South is not trained in CPR, which could have caused some of the injuries, Green said.

Kimble described the account South gave him as “punching the child in the abdomen.”

“Regardless of training or not, there’s a thing called common sense. You don’t punch a punch a child in the sternum or abdomen, to get them to breath” he said. South will stand trial Sept. 2, before Circut Judge Isadore Patrick.