Former Westminster resident Micheal Casey Workman was sentenced to 12 years in prison last week after pleading guilty in July to abusing and killing his 7-week-old son, Tavyus.

Adams County District Court Judge Mark D. Warner said Workman must also serve a mandatory five-year probation term after he has completed his sentence.

Warner handed down the sentence following emotional and polarizing testimonies from Micheal Workman’s family and Tavyus Workman’s mother, Brandi Hernandez, and her family.

According to court documents, an emergency call was placed to the Westminster Police and Fire departments on Oct. 28, 2009, after Tavyus Workman “had choked and did not have a pulse and was not breathing.” Tavyus Workman was then transported to Presbyterian St. Luke’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, where he died four days later.

Tavyus Workman’s death was later ruled a homicide, and his cause of death was listed as blunt-force head injury.

Micheal Workman was later arrested and charged with criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death. His first trial this spring ended in a mistrial when the jury could not agree on a verdict.

He chose not to make a statement during his sentencing hearing.

Lorraine Rose, Micheal Workman’s grandmother, described him as a “gentle, naïve and trusting person,” who was “always good with children.” She said her grandson has given up and no longer wants to fight the charges but entreated Warner “to consider his (Micheal’s) youth, naivety and character” in his sentencing decision.

“Personally, I find it impossible to believe that he could ever harm a child,” Rose said. “He’s a young man yet with a life ahead of him, and it’s about to be destroyed. I understand Brandi’s family’s anger over the loss of his child and their pain. I’d just like them to know they’re not the only ones who suffered a loss — we do, too.”

Cindy Beauchamp, Brandi Hernandez’s mother, sympathized with Workman’s family’s loss but said, “There is no away to justify what that man did to that little baby.”

She and Brandi Hernandez asked Warner to give Micheal Workman the maximum sentence.

“Since this started almost three years ago, I lost everything,” Hernandez said. “I lost a child that I will never get back, my son lost a brother and my family lost out on a grandchild.”