Madison man found guilty of negligent homicide in toddler’s 2022 drowning death
MADISON COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) – A Madison man was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and sentenced in connection to the drowning death of a toddler in 2022.
Tony Allen Burks was initially charged with manslaughter in the death of 1-year-old Zaviah Garner following an incident on Memorial Day 2022.
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Burks’ jury trial started on April 29 and on Wednesday, a jury unanimously convicted him of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide. He was sentenced to serve one year in the Madison County Jail.
A criminal complaint stated that Burks was “grilling out” and was “under some substance” while Zaviah was in his care when he “allowed her in the pool area.” Burks was arrested on June 20, 2022, booked into the Madison County Jail on a $30,000 bond and released the same day.
On April 14, 2023, a grand jury returned its indictment, saying Burks “did recklessly” cause the toddler’s death, by “consciously disregarded…a substantial and unjustifiable risk that his conduct would cause the drowning death of the infant victim.”
The indictment continued, “In doing so he consciously did some wrongful act and/or omitted a known duty of care which caused the death of [Zaviah].”
Burks’s bond was revoked less than one year after his release when he was arrested in Limestone County for first-degree possession of marijuana. He was rebooked into the county jail on June 16 and according to jail records, he has been held there since.
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