The 20-year cap in Cinceir Croxton’s agreement became the sentence after the judge said the boy’s death flowed from repeated decisions.
SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. — A Spotsylvania County judge imposed the maximum sentence allowed under Cinceir Croxton’s plea deal, ordering the 25-year-old father to serve 20 years in prison in the death of his 2-year-old son, CJ.
The legal significance of Monday’s hearing was not whether Croxton was guilty. He had already pleaded guilty. The remaining question was how much punishment should follow the admitted crimes of second-degree murder, child abuse and drug offenses. Because the agreement capped the sentence at 20 years, the hearing became a test of whether the judge viewed the case as one that merited the full term. By the end, Judge William Glover made clear that he did.
Croxton originally faced a wider set of charges, including second-degree murder, child abuse, possession of drugs with intent to sell, possession of a firearm while under the influence of drugs and child endangerment. Under the October 2025 plea agreement, the firearm and child endangerment counts were dropped. That left the court to sentence him on the remaining charges within a fixed ceiling. Plea agreements often narrow factual disputes, and this one did exactly that. The sentencing hearing did not need to establish every detail from scratch. Instead, witnesses and lawyers used the hearing to frame how severe the admitted conduct had been and why the judge should treat it at the top end of the range allowed by the deal.
The prosecution’s account rested on the circumstances surrounding CJ’s death on Dec. 7, 2023. The child was found unresponsive while staying with his parents at an Econo Lodge in Spotsylvania County and was taken to a hospital, where doctors found cocaine in his system. Investigators later reported finding cocaine residue on a PlayStation, cocaine in an unlocked safe, about 70 grams of the drug and roughly $4,000 in cash. Witnesses also described unsecured guns and snakes in a Pack ’n Play. The state used those facts to argue that the case involved not only a dead child but a deeply unsafe environment. In that setting, prosecutors argued, the maximum sentence under the plea agreement was justified.
The defense record included Croxton’s statement that he loved his son “dearly,” but that expression did not move the judge toward leniency. Glover said CJ’s living circumstances “inevitably” killed him and told Croxton, “It was a series of choices you made.” Those comments were central because they explained the court’s reasoning in plain language. The judge was not describing a freak event or a brief lapse. He was describing a continuing course of conduct. That distinction mattered at sentencing, where judges often weigh intent, pattern and the degree to which a defendant had chances to change course before the harm occurred.
The courtroom also carried the shadow of related proceedings against CJ’s mother, Kahleighya Coleman. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and child abuse charges and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Her case had already shown that prosecutors were resolving the matter through negotiated pleas rather than jury trials. Public reporting indicates both parents were arrested in August 2024, months after the child’s death. By the time Croxton stood for sentencing in March 2026, the court had a nearly complete picture of how the prosecution intended to close the case: guilty pleas, capped exposure and then a request for heavy prison time based on the surrounding facts.
Seen through that legal lens, the hearing was a reckoning more than a contest. The plea had already answered the question of criminal liability. The judge’s task was to assign moral and legal weight to the admitted conduct, the child’s untreated sickle cell disease, the reported refusal of salmonella treatment and the environment deputies found inside the motel room. The sentence answered that question decisively. By selecting the full 20 years allowed, Glover signaled that the mitigating value of Croxton’s guilty plea did not outweigh the seriousness of the facts behind it. The hearing closed with prison time fixed, parental responsibility formally adjudicated and no trial still ahead to change the outcome.
The criminal proceedings now stand resolved through pleas and sentencings rather than verdicts, with Croxton ordered to serve 20 years and Coleman 15. Unless post-sentencing motions alter the paperwork, the case’s next stage is the routine enforcement of the prison terms already imposed.
Author note: Last updated April 15, 2026.