Man guilty in baby's death

A Fairfax County man pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter, for shaking his nine-month-old baby to death in the Burke area last year.

Dylan M. Price, who lived in the 9800 block of Spillway Court, was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital on Sept. 22 and pronounced dead. Fairfax police did not disclose the death at the time, or when it was ruled a homicide in December. Detectives then focused on Price’s father, Herbert M. Price Jr., and obtained an indictment against him for murder and child abuse in January.

Investigators believe Dylan fell, and that his father then shook the baby. Herbert Price, 30, did not intentionally harm the child, his lawyer Peter D. Greenspun said, but was “negligent in how he responded to the fall.” Greenspun said the baby’s mother, Price’s wife Stacy Price, did not want Price prosecuted.

Prosecutors dismissed the child abuse charge and agreed to Price’s guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter, with a punishment range of up to 10 years in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 24.

-- Tom Jackman