Van Buren Co. dad sentenced in son’s OD (10 December 2019, for {EMAIL})

SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — A Van Buren County man was sentenced in connection to his son’s fatal 2017 drug overdose. Gary Birkhead was sentenced Monday to one year in jail and five years of probation for involuntary manslaughter in the death of 16-year-old Cole Birkhead. He has already served 264 days in jail. As part of a plea agreement in November, prosecutors dropped a felony child abuse charge. Authorities say Gary Birkhead allowed his son to use illicit drugs over two years until his death in August 2017. News 8 previously learned that Cole Birkhead started showing symptoms of the deadly overdose while he was in a vehicle with his father near Hartford. The teenager died at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, according to Michigan State Police. Troopers said they had been looking into suspicious details in the case for more than a year before arresting Birkhead in March. 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