A Kentucky father pleaded guilty to manslaughter after he admitted to leaving matches within his 2-year-old son’s reach causing a tragedy on March 30, 2019.
Vaughn Brock II, 28, told detectives that he was smoking weed on the couch inside his London trailer home with son Joseph Brock playing with matches nearby.
The father passed out shortly afterward and woke up to a house fire. His son was later found in the washing machine, apparently trying to escape the flames.
“There was a pile of laundry a few feet high by the washer that the child could have climbed up and gotten into the washing machine,” Prosecutor Attorney Jackie Steele said.
“We could not prove that the fire or the child’s death was intentional. The child’s cause of death was smoke inhalation. Had there not been that pile of laundry by the washer, I would have argued that there was no way the child could have gotten into the washer by himself.”
