Bristol man sentenced to state prison for killing his 4-month-old son
Tyler Sullivan pleaded guilty in May to third-degree murder for shaking his son to death. His attorney said Tuesday that Sullivan's abusive childhood had left him unable to handle fatherhood.
For the first time since Tyler Sullivan killed his 4-month-old son last year, he faced the boy’s mother and her family and tried to find words to explain his actions and address their indescribable loss.
In a Doylestown courtroom Tuesday, through a voice thick with tears, Sullivan, 31, apologized and said he would give anything to see Timothy smile again. He would, he said, trade his life for the infant’s.
“I wish I had taken accountability for my life a long time ago and stuck with it,” Sullivan told Madisen Neidlein, his son’s mother. “The only forgiveness I want is for you to live a happy life, the one you deserve.”
Bucks County Court Judge Gary Gilman sentenced Sullivan to 15 to 30 years in state prison for third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child. Sullivan pleaded guilty to those charges in May after admitting that he repeatedly shook and struck Timothy while caring for him in their home in Bristol.
Gilman said he considered the full scope of Sullivan’s life in crafting that sentence, including the “toxic and chaotic” household in which he was raised, and the mental-health issues, including depression and anxiety, that he struggles with daily as a result of that unstable upbringing.
The judge said he believed that Sullivan was truly remorseful for his actions. Still, Gilman noted that Sullivan seemed ill-equipped to handle fatherhood and had made a fatal mistake by not asking for help.
“The value of human life is infinite,” Gilman said. “It is the greatest gift anyone can have, and that gift has been taken away irretrievably, regrettably.”
Sullivan called Neidlein while she was at work on May 24, 2023, to tell them their son was not breathing, according to Assistant District Attorney Matthew Lannetti.
When Bristol Police arrived at Sullivan and Neidlein’s home on Radcliffe Street, they found Timothy cold to the touch, Lannetti said. The boy was not breathing and had visible bruises on his forehead, neck and other parts of his body.
A doctor at Lower Bucks Hospital determined that the boy’s injuries were indicative of a “battered child,” according to evidence presented in court Tuesday. Some of the bruises appeared to be older and healing, and had been present when Timothy was taken to Jefferson Abington Hospital for an earlier doctor’s appointment.
“I don’t believe, and I don’t think anyone here believes [Sullivan] meant to kill Timothy,” Lannetti said. “Every old bruise was a warning for him not to do it again, but he did it again and again until he couldn’t anymore.”
In an interview with police, Sullivan admitted shaking his son twice earlier on the day of his death and said he had shaken the infant six times over the previous six weeks. The bruising, he said, came from accidentally bumping him on a rocking chair and in the bathtub, an explanation that investigators said they didn’t find credible.
Sullivan’s attorney, Niels Eriksen, presented evidence Tuesday, through letters written by Sullivan’s cousins and testimony from his half-brother, that Sullivan suffered from severe psychological stress as a result of physical and emotional abuse from his parents. That abuse, he said, influenced Sullivan’s actions while struggling with raising an infant.
“The bottom line is he didn’t know how to communicate and kept everything bottled up until he exploded, and I think that’s what happened here,” Eriksen said. “I think it’s clear he accepts responsibility for his actions in causing the death of his son.”
In a statement read in court by Lannetti, Neidlein expressed the deep sorrow and pain she has felt since her son’s death. Some days she struggles to leave her home, she said, and she has constant nightmares about her son’s final moments.
“I carried Timothy longer than I got to see him grow,” she wrote. “He deserved to live a long, full life.”