Assistant Pottawattamie County Attorney Amy Zacharias said the sentence wasn’t a surprise because first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence. During the hearing Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber noted that his office offered a plea deal of child endangerment causing death, which would’ve carried a 50-year sentence with no mandatory minimum, meaning Curtis likely would’ve been out in 11-12 years with good behavior, but Wilber told the paper Curtis wouldn’t take responsibility for his actions, and the verdict, along with the judge’s decision was the consequence.

Curtis pleaded guilty in 2010 to a charge of child endangerment, stemming from injuries his then 4-month-old daughter had suffered. For the plea, he received a deferred judgment, which means the charge would have been erased had he stayed out of trouble.