In the fall of 1984, in Killeen, Texas, the life of a two-month-old infant boy named Michael James Penton was tragically cut short. The male infant died on November 26, 1984, a victim of violent shaking at the hands of his own father, David Elliott Penton. At the time, David Penton was a soldier stationed at Fort Hood. An investigation by the Bell County medical examiner determined that Michael had been shaken to death in what was described as a "fit of rage" because the infant would not stop crying. This act of violence led to the arrest of David Penton, forever altering the course of his life and revealing a much darker path of criminal behavior.
Following his arrest, David Penton was charged in connection with his son's death. He ultimately pleaded guilty to the charge of manslaughter. A judge sentenced him to a five-year prison term for killing his infant son. In addition to the prison sentence, Penton was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, the institution he had been serving. However, the legal process did not proceed as planned. While out on bond and appealing his manslaughter conviction, David Penton made a decision that would turn him into a fugitive; he fled from the Texas authorities, evading the justice that was to be served for the death of young Michael.
Penton's time as a fugitive eventually came to an end, but his capture would unveil a horrifying series of other crimes he committed after fleeing Texas. He was later arrested and convicted for the 1988 kidnapping and aggravated murder of a nine-year-old girl in Ohio. His criminal history didn't stop there. In 2003, while incarcerated in Ohio, he was indicted for the murders of three young girls in the Dallas area that occurred in the mid-1980s, during the period he was a fugitive. To avoid a potential death sentence in Texas, Penton signed a plea deal in 2005, pleading guilty to these three murders. He is currently serving consecutive life sentences. The death of Michael James Penton was the first in a string of violent crimes committed by his father, a man who would go on to become a convicted serial killer.
