A Moab man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the 1986 slaying of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole announced Friday.
Steven Ray Allen, now 62, was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder for the Dec. 16, 1986, death of Michael Barrie.
The boy died while waiting with Allen in a pickup truck while his mother shopped for Christmas toys in a Moab store.
Later, Allen ran into the store, saying the boy had stopped breathing, possibly having choked on a piece of candy.
Neither the pathologist who conducted the autopsy nor other medical experts could say exactly what caused the child's death.
However, marks and bruises on the boy's face, and a newly broken rib, allowed an inference that the child suffocated when Allen placed his hands over the boy's nose and mouth, according to prosecutors.
