In an emotional hearing, a Bucks County man pleaded guilty in his 2-year-old son’s accidental shooting death

A Middletown Township man whose 2-year-old son accidentally killed himself with an unsecured gun was sentenced to jail during an emotional hearing Thursday in Doylestown.

Choking back tears, Jorddan Thornton, 28, told Bucks County Judge Jeffrey L. Finley that the death of his son, Julius, was a terrible accident and the “absolute worst day” of his life.

“If I could, I would give anything in the world to save my son,” he said. “Unfortunately, I can’t. The only thing I can do is learn from my mistake and share my story, so another parent can learn and not have to go through the pain of burying a child.”

Thornton pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child in the December 2020 incident, in which prosecutors said the boy shot himself with a .40-caliber handgun that had been left in the bottom drawer of a dresser.

He died weeks before what would have been his third birthday.

Finley accepted the negotiated sentence offered by prosecutors, sending Thornton to the county jail for 11½ to 23 months, followed by four years of probation.

While the judge said he sympathized with Thornton over his family’s loss, he admonished him for keeping a loaded gun in a place easily accessible to a child and said he had “grave concerns” about Thornton’s responsibility as a gun owner.

At the time of the child’s death, investigators said, six other guns were in the apartment Thornton shared with his family, and only one had been properly locked away.

“I don’t know why you had seven different firearms,” Finley said, adding, “... I do question why you didn’t handle or store them appropriately.”

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Police were called to Thornton’s apartment on Dec. 2, 2020, responding to a call about a child who had fallen and injured his head, prosecutors said in court Thursday.

Officers arrived to find Thornton standing outside, holding Julius in a blanket. He told police the child had hurt himself falling off a bed, but officers saw what looked like a gunshot wound to the child’s head.

Julius was taken to St. Mary Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead. An autopsy determined he had been shot once in the head at close range.

Thornton’s attorney, Leon Goodman, said his client has accepted responsibility for his son’s death.

“In searching for the word of the day, devastation doesn’t touch what my client and his family have been through,” he said. “My client and his wife are attempting to take the steps to come to terms with what happened.”

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Goodman said the guilt Thornton carries was “far greater than whatever sentence this court pronounces.”

Thornton’s wife, Tanya, wept silently in the courtroom as she held the couple’s infant daughter, born six months after Julius’ death. She spoke briefly on her husband’s behalf, and asked the judge to accept the terms of the plea agreement.

“My world exploded, and there was no putting that back together,” she said about the night of the shooting. “All I have done since the night Julius passed away was fight for my family, and try to make us whole again.”