Chesco man sentenced in drug death of baby son

Giving a lethal cocktail of methadone to his 23-month-old son resulted in a 20- to 40-year prison sentence for a Charlestown Township man.

Ian J. Kohn, 29, will serve the sentence for third-degree murder as part of a plea agreement approved Monday in Chester County Court.

Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth B. Pitts said authorities debated seeking a first-degree murder conviction, which would have carried a life sentence. She said it would have been difficult to prove that Kohn, who has a history of drug convictions, had formed a clear intent to kill, a required component of first-degree murder.

"I don't think the defendant intended to kill his son," said Pitts, "but this was a heartbreaking case because this child's death was senseless and avoidable."

Kohn called 911 at 3:46 p.m. March 17, 2009, after finding his 23-month-old son, Joey, unresponsive in the room the two shared in the basement of Kohn's parents' home on Hollow Road, police said. The boy was pronounced dead at Paoli Hospital from a drug overdose, police said.

At first, Kohn denied giving his son drugs, the criminal complaint said. Later, he admitted he routinely crushed pills of methadone and Ambien, a sleeping aid, in the boy's bottle and juice cup, sometimes mixing them with Gatorade, the complaint said. Kohn told police that his son had been teething and that he kept refilling the bottle in the hope of settling the boy down.

Blood tests showed drug levels in the boy's blood that were nine times the amount that would normally kill a child of his age and size, police said.

Since 2004, Kohn has entered three guilty pleas to drug offenses, according to court records.

Kohn's parents, Robin J. and Linda S. Kohn, attended the sentencing but did not speak, Pitts said. Robin Kohn is a former township supervisors chairman.

Sarah Cortlessa, the boy's mother, told Chester County Court Judge Thomas G. Gavin that she believed the sentence was too harsh. She was incarcerated at the time of her son's death, police said.