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A 27-year-old Salt Lake City man has been sentenced to prison for causing the death of his girlfriend's 1-year-old son three years ago.

Brian Luther Taylor says he accidentally dropped the child on his head, but prosecutors claim there was much more violence inflicted than that.

Taylor pleaded guilty in November to second-degree felony child abuse homicide, reduced from an initial charge of first-degree felony murder. He also pleaded no contest to a charge of second-degree felony child abuse in connection with a bone fracture suffered by the child.

He admitted in court papers that he dropped Xander Toliver on his head on Dec. 30, 2013, resulting in a fatal brain injury.

On Thursday, 3rd District Judge James Blanch sentenced Taylor to prison, telling the defendant that adults carry a heightened responsibility to protect children. The judge ordered Taylor to serve two concurrent terms of one-to-15 years at the Utah State Prison.

Taylor expressed remorse on Thursday, apologizing to Kaela Memmott and her family for causing her child's death.

"I'll live with this for the rest of my life, and that's my punishment," he said. "It will be on my conscience, because I caused the death of a 1-year-old baby, of someone that I loved."

Prosecutors had asked the judge to order consecutive prison terms — allowing Taylor to be held behind bars for up to 30 years — while defense attorney Jason Poppleton asked for probation, noting that his client had served three years in jail before the case resolved.

Memmott, who was not in court Thursday but spoke to the judge via telephone, told the court that she was not comfortable with the idea of probation. She said Taylor had not only been violent with her, but other women in the past.

"I just don't feel like it would be safe putting him on probation," she said. "I feel like he needs to serve time for what he did."

While Taylor claimed that he dropped Xander on that December day, Deputy Salt Lake District Attorney Robert Parrish said that version of events likely didn't happen due to the severity of the child's head injuries. Parrish argued that the child was likely "violently shaken and most likely violently slammed" before his death.

"If it was just an accidental drop, we wouldn't be here," he told the judge. "He never would have been charged."

On the day that Xander was injured, Memmott had left the boy in Taylor's care, according to charging documents. She was gone for a few minutes when she heard a noise, came back and saw Xander gasping for breath, charges state.

Taylor picked Xander up, but he was "floppy and unresponsive," the court documents read. Memmott immediately called 911.

Xander was hospitalized and put on life support at Primary Children's Hospital, where he died Jan. 2.

The state medical examiner performed an autopsy the next day and determined the child had died from intentionally inflicted head trauma, which would have occurred immediately before the baby lost consciousness, according to court documents.