Michigan man sentenced to prison in drowning of autistic son

A former western Michigan college professor has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty in his severely autistic teenage son's drowning death in an icy backyard pool. Fifty-one-year-old Timothy Koets was sentenced Monday to a minimum of two years in prison and a maximum of 15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter. He had pleaded guilty in December to involuntary manslaughter and child abuse in the March 2019 death of 16-year-old Samuel Koets. The teen drowned in the backyard pool at the family's home in Georgetown Township, about 170 miles west of Detroit. He drowned after spending an hour in its waters, with his arms restrained.