Topeka dad likely to spend life in prison for death of 2-year-old

TOPEKA (KSNT) – A man accused of killing his 2-year-old child has been convicted in Shawnee County.

The Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office reports that Jeffrey J. Exon was convicted Monday following a six-day jury trial. Exon was convicted of the following charges:

First degree murder, committed during an inherently dangerous felony

Second degree murder

Aggravated endangering a child

Failure to report the death of a child

Exon, who was first arrested in March 2021 and bound over for trial in August 2021, will remain in custody until his sentencing date on July 28, 2023, according to the DA’s office. He is facing a presumed sentence of life in prison, where he must serve at least 25 years before being eligible for parole on the felony murder charge.

Exon was charged in relation to the death of his 2-year-old daughter Aurora, according to the DA’s office. Law enforcement was called around 10 a.m. on Jan. 5, 2021 to a home in the 3500 block of Southwest 10th St. in Topeka on reference to an unresponsive child. Officers arriving at the home found Exon’s daughter unresponsive and cold to the touch. The child appeared to have been dead for several days, District Attorney Mike Kagay said in a release.

An autopsy concluded that the child died of malnutrition, according to the DA’s office. An investigation showed that Exon suffered from addiction issues and would not feed or attend his children for several days.

During the trial, Exon’s 6-year-old son, who was four at the time of his sister’s death, gave testimony that Exon locked them in their rooms for several days without food while he “slept.”

KSNT 27 News spoke with Seonaid Nichols, the mother of the deceased child, in March 2021.