Twenty-four-year-old Michael Nice expressed grief at Wednesday's sentencing hearing, saying he thinks about his son Leon "every night."
Nice pleaded guilty in August to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in the death at a West Scranton home authorities described as filthy and strewn with animal feces. He could spent up to nine years in prison.
The Times-Tribune of Scranton reports Nice grabbed the child by the neck and shook him in August 2011 because he wouldn't stop crying.
The boy's mother, Elizabeth Crandall, calls her fiance a good man. The couple also has an older son together.
