A 20-year-old Minnesota man will not serve time in prison despite his conviction in connection with the November 2025 death of his newborn son, whom he left propped against a pillow with a bottle while he departed to run an “errand.”
Hennepin County District Judge Marta M. Chou sentenced Kylen George Johnson Allen to four years in prison; however, that sentence was stayed for five years. As a condition of the stay, Allen is required to serve 180 days at the Hennepin County workhouse , a short-term correctional and residential facility offering work training and rehabilitation services , followed by five years of supervised probation, according to court records.
The sentencing followed Allen’s conviction on one count of second-degree manslaughter in connection with his son’s death.
According to a probable cause affidavit, officers responded on November 1, 2025, to a report of a 9-day-old boy who was described as “gasping and unconscious” at a residence located in the 2600 block of Golden Valley Road in Minneapolis.
By the time police arrived on the scene, the child had already been placed in an ambulance.
Allen, the infant’s father, initially informed officers that he had left the baby “with a neighbor who was friends with his mother” while he “ran an errand” on the south side of Minneapolis. He further stated that upon his return, he observed a mark on the infant’s lip and noted that the baby was breathing slowly.
“When he noticed the victim acting strangely, [Allen] reported he called 911,” the affidavit states.
The infant was transported to a hospital while in full cardiac arrest and was subsequently pronounced dead. Medical personnel noted that the child appeared pale and cold upon arrival, indicating that “he had been deceased for some time prior to arrival.”
Physicians further noted that formula or breast milk was required to be suctioned from the newborn’s mouth and throat upon examination.
While at the hospital, Allen and the infant’s mother were observed “going into the bathroom together for an extended and abnormal period.”
Investigators later obtained surveillance footage recorded outside Allen’s residence, which contradicted his initial claim that he had left the baby in the care of a neighbor.
During a subsequent interview with police, the infant’s mother initially provided investigators with a false account of events, according to the affidavit.
“Later in the interview, when confronted with inconsistent surveillance footage, [the mother] admitted she was not being truthful and told the investigator that Defendant told her what to say to police,” the affidavit states.
Allen similarly maintained his original account during his interview with investigators before ultimately admitting, after being confronted with the surveillance footage, that he had been untruthful.
The affidavit further details the following:
Defendant admitted to propping Victim in a U-shaped neck pillow with a bottle and wrapping a towel around Victim’s head to hold the bottle in place during Victim’s 3 a.m. feeding. Defendant then reported falling asleep in another room for several hours. When Defendant returned to find Victim, Victim was face down in the neck pillow and had a red mark on his face. Defendant reported when he picked Victim up, Victim was breathing abnormally so he called 911.
An autopsy was subsequently conducted at the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office. The medical examiner classified the cause of death as undetermined, though positional asphyxiation could not be ruled out , a conclusion consistent with Allen’s own account of how he had positioned the infant prior to his death.
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