A Salem man was sentenced to life in prison on Monday for murdering his six-month-old son in April 2022.
Marion County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Gardiner sentenced Edward W. Casian, 27, after he pleaded no contest to second degree murder.
Casian murdered his son, Ryker Casian, by asphyxiating him after previously engaging in a “pattern and practice of assault and torture,” the plea document said.
At around 7:30 a.m. on April 12, 2022, Salem police and paramedics responded to a report that Ryker was unconscious and not breathing normally, a statement from the Salem Police Department said last year.
Emergency responders could not resuscitate Rkyer, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Salem police opened an investigation after finding suspicious bruises on Ryker’s body, a Tuesday statement from the Marion County District Attorney’s Office said.
Initially the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office listed the cause of Ryker’s death as a sudden unexplained infant death. After further investigation, the death was ruled a homicide with a cause of asphyxiation by smothering.
Police arrested Edward Casian on May 11, 2023. Prosecutors charged him with second degree murder and criminal mistreatment.
He was also accused of hurting Ryker multiple times in the months before the murder.
Edward Casian will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years of his life sentence, the statement said.
Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected].
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Madeleine Moore is working as a reporter at Salem Reporter through the University of Oregon’s Charles Snowden internship program. She came to Salem after graduating from the University of Oregon in June 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
