Larry Dwayne Prudhomme.
A Texas man was sentenced to 50 years in prison for murdering his girlfriend’s 5-year-old son.
Under Texas law, Larry Dwayne Prudhomme Jr., 33, will be eligible after 25 years behind bars for serving half his punishment, said Harrison County District Attorney Reid McCain, according to The Marshall News Messenger.
The case against the child’s mother Danielle Faulkner, 32, for injury to a child causing serious bodily injury is pending. The couple had fed authorities a story about the child falling while taking out trash, authorities said.
Prudhomme had pleaded guilty mere days before his trial. Jury selection was set to begin Monday and testimony on Tuesday.
EMS responded Sept. 17, 2019 to a residence on American Plant Road about a child having trouble breathing. In this initial account, dispatchers were told the boy fell off the porch earlier that night while taking out garbage.
But first responders said massive bruising to the 5-year-old’s body did not match the couple’s account. EMS relayed these concerns to deputies. The boy died at Ochsner LSU on Sept. 20, 2019.
A 33-year-old Waskom man, Larry Dwayne Prudhomme Jr., was sentenced to 50 years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to the September 2019 murder of his girlfriend’s 5-year-old son. https://t.co/Ge2MyqUt0L
— News Messenger (@News_Messenger) March 3, 2022
“Law enforcement was happy because they wanted to hear him say that he was guilty of this offense,” McCain said. “The whole thing was tragic and disturbing, but we now know that he’s locked up for a long time, never to hurt anybody on the streets again, and it’s final.”
[Booking photos via Harrison County Sheriff’s Office]
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