Traverse City Record-Eagle

Grand Traverse County

December 16, 2008

Woman sentenced in death of child

FROM STAFF REPORTS

KALKASKA -- A Kalkaska woman will spend the next five to 15 years in prison on charges connected to her son's death.

Pamela Buning, 24, was sentenced Monday for involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy to obstruct justice, Kalkaska County Prosecutor Brian Donnelly said.

Buning's son, Cody Cross, 3, died in August from an alleged beating by a man who lived with Buning.

Sheldon McDonald will stand trial beginning Jan. 12 on an open count of murder. Cody was unconscious and had a head injury when authorities arrived Aug. 1 at the downtown Kalkaska apartment where McDonald lived with Buning. He died Aug. 3.

Investigators allege McDonald repeatedly beat Cody over a prolonged period as a "misguided form of discipline," and Buning did nothing to stop it.

Heather Batchelor, a friend of McDonald and Buning, also was charged.

Batchelor had a lengthy criminal record and was on parole at the time of the incident, Donnelly said. She was sentenced Dec. 3 to four years, nine months to 10 years for conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Police captured a phone conversation between the three Aug. 1 as Batchelor sat in the back seat of a police car. She called both McDonald and Buning on her cell phone to discuss a cover-up story, police said.

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