Mother of Hayden Gage West, Renee Kimbro testifing... Photo by Barry West
According to Judge Craig Johnson, he will be required to serve at least 51 years before being eligible for parole.
Greenwood was convicted last week of the murder of Haydon Gage West, 2, at his residence on Circle Drive in Tullahoma on March 9, 2010.
Young Haydon’s mother had left the child with Greenwood while she went to court with a relative. She said that she had left him with Greenwood on other occasions.
According to police accounts, Greenwood called 911 and told the operators that Haydon was having problems breathing caused by his asthma. When ambulance personnel arrived at Harton Regional Medical Center, emergency room personnel immediately began to try and revive the child to no avail. He was pronounced dead a short time later in the emergency room.
When pictures that were taken in the emergency room of the 2-year-old’s bruised body were shown during last week’s trial, many of the jurors cried at what they saw.
Greenwood’s attorney Roger Bean asked the jury of seven women and five men to consider the defendant’s age and give him life in prison.
Renee Kimbro, Haydon’s mother, told the court that she “blamed” herself for “bringing him (Greenwood) into Hayden’s life.”
Kimbro testified that she played with Haydon everyday and two days before his death she taught Haydon to ride a bicycle.
Kimbro stated outside the courtroom that she would have liked to have seen Greenwood receive life without parole.
After the court hearing, Greenwood was led back to the Coffee County Jail where he will be held until the Tennessee Department of Corrections can find a bed for him.
“I called and requested a bed for him,” Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves stated. “As soon as one becomes available we will send him to Nashville.”
