Carson City man sentenced minimum of 5 years in prison for child neglect with substantial bodily harm
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Wed, 10/23/2013 - 5:30pm
Justin Carrigan was sentenced Monday to a minimum of five and maximum of 15 years in the Nevada Department of Corrections prison after a jury in September found him guilty of child neglect with substantial bodily after a 3-year-old suffered brain damage under his care.
This is the second time a jury convicted and Judge James T. Russell sentenced Carrigan of this crime. On September 29, 2011, a jury found Carrigan guilty of child neglect with substantial bodily harm but acquitted him of child abuse with substantial bodily harm.
Carrigan was originally sentenced to a minimum of 6 years and a maximum of 15 years in the Nevada Department of Corrections. Carrigan appealed his conviction to the Nevada Supreme Court. The Supreme Court reversed his conviction due to an error in the court’s jury instruction.
Allegations arose in this case from an incident on September 27, 2010, when Carrigan was the sole caregiver for Rochelle Ellis, a 3-year-old at the time. Law enforcement believed Carrigan stopped Ellis’ breathing and then neglected to seek medical treatment by leaving the scene and deliberately refusing to call 911. Carrigan’s acts caused Ellis to suffer irreversible brain damage from a lack of oxygen after her heart stopped.
“We will never be able to undo what occurred to Rochelle, but we at least provided her, her family, and the community the justice they deserved by convicting Mr. Carrigan again and not letting him free on a technicality.” stated District Attorney Neil A. Rombardo in a released statement
Ellis, who currently lives in a 24 hour care facility, has made some improvements, but the course of her life has been changed forever. “There can be no doubt that Mr. Carrigan is responsible for this crime, two sets of juries have now convicted him. I am pleased I was able to convict him the second time, and coming from a community with no victim-witness services, I am impressed with the way our victim services walked this family through this case again,” stated lead prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney, Mark J. Krueger.
