INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ A 58-year-old Indianapolis man convicted in the 1977 beating death of his former girlfriend's toddler son has been sentenced to life in prison.
Marion Superior Judge Lisa Borges sentenced Michael Ackerman on Friday in the death of 18-month-old Billy Wood. Ackerman was arrested last year after the police cold case squad reopened the case. Ackerman was babysitting the child when he died.
The boy's cause of death was listed at the time of an autopsy as multiple injuries/undetermined, even though an autopsy report identified the injuries as a fractured skull and numerous internal injuries.
A Marion County jury convicted Wood last month of murder. The prosecutor's office says Ackerman will be eligible for parole in 20 years.
