The courthouse at Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany, on March 22, 2024. A noncommissioned officer at Vilseck was convicted of battery following the March 2022 death of his 5-month-old son. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
VILSECK, Germany – An Army noncommissioned officer was convicted of child battery but acquitted of murdering his infant son, a military jury decided during a 10-day trial that ended Friday.
Sgt. Brandon Livingston, 28, assigned to the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, was sentenced at court-martial on Friday to 33 months in prison and a reduction in pay grade to E-1.
Livingston also was acquitted of aggravated assault and obstruction of justice in the death of his 5-month-old son Kaleb on March 5, 2022.
The saga involving Livingston, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, began at around 1 a.m. on March 5, when emergency responders were called to his Vilseck home to treat his son, who was in distress, prosecutors said during the trial.
The boy was taken to a German clinic in the Bavarian city of Weiden, where he was treated for blunt force trauma to the head, a skull fracture and brain hemorrhaging. He died a short time later.
Doctors found evidence of rib and leg fractures that showed signs of healing, which pointed to a pattern of abuse, prosecutors said.
Both Livingston and his wife, Lilli, were arrested by U.S. military police, Oberpfalz police told Stars and Stripes previously.
German prosecutors accused Lilli Livingston, a German national, of failing to prevent the abuse. She was convicted last year of negligent homicide by omission and received a suspended sentence of one-and-a-half years of probation.
Lilli Livingston accused her husband of abusing the child at least three times in the couple’s home in the Amberg-Sulzbach district, Bavarian news site Onetz reported at the time.
The court-martial began March 11, with Judge Lt. Col. Thomas Hynes presiding.
The main entrance gate at Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany, is shown March 22, 2024. A soldier from the base was convicted of battery on his infant son prior to the boy's death in March 2022. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)
Over the course of the trial, the prosecution tried to pinpoint the time of Kaleb’s injuries and place him in his father’s care, while the defense focused on Lilli Livingston’s actions.
The panel of officers and senior enlisted leaders deliberated for around five hours Thursday before finding the sergeant guilty of battery on a child under the age of 16, said Jason Treffry, a spokesman for the 7th Army Training Command.
Brandon Livingston entered the court for sentencing Friday in his service dress uniform. The prosecution telephoned a child abuse specialist that revisited Kaleb’s injuries, and then called Lilli Livingston to the stand.
“I can’t describe how much this hurts me,” she said as she broke down. “I’m shattered.”
The defense called an array of character witnesses from family to former soldiers that described the sergeant as peaceful and a good leader. Brandon Livingston later wept as he delivered a statement to the judge.
“I will miss you daily, Kaleb,” he said. “I know you’re looking down on us with your grandmother.”
Maj. Brett Erland, a member of the prosecution, criticized Brandon Livingston during sentencing arguments for exhibiting a lack of remorse.
“All along, he knew his child was in pain and he did it again,” he said.
Defense counsel Capt. Patrick Hitt declined to comment at the conclusion of the trial.
Brandon Livingston has 90 days to appeal, Treffry said. Any sentence over two years is automatically reviewed by the Army Court of Criminal Appeals.
He will most likely serve his sentence at either the Joint Regional Confinement Facility or Disciplinary Barracks, both located at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Treffry said.
