A Dayton man will spend at least two decades in prison for the murder of 7-year-old Hershall Creachbaum Jr. Michael Kendrick, 40, was sentenced Thursday to 20 years to life in prison, WHIO News Center 7 reported, closing the criminal case against him in one of Dayton’s most painful child-death investigations.
Kendrick entered guilty pleas on October 29 in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court to murder, two counts of tampering with evidence, three counts of gross abuse of a corpse and one count of endangering children, according to the Dayton Daily News, which cited Monique Harris, bailiff for Judge E. Gerald Parker. The plea came days before his trial had been scheduled to start on November 2.
Hershall was a 7-year-old nonverbal autistic boy. His skeletal remains were found on July 12, 2025, in Dayton, weeks after his death, the Dayton Daily News reported. His mother told detectives her son died in late May, according to Dayton Municipal Court records cited by the Dayton Daily News, and Kendrick later reported the boy missing before investigators recovered his remains a short walk from the family’s home.
According to court documents reported by the Dayton Daily News, Kendrick told detectives he punched Hershall in the head twice while he was in an argument on the phone and drinking. The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office ruled the boy’s cause and manner of death undetermined, the Dayton Daily News reported — a finding that shaped the charges prosecutors could prove.
Kendrick, the boyfriend of Hershall’s mother, had been held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2 million bond since his July 12, 2025, arrest, according to the Dayton Daily News. Thursday’s sentence of 20 years to life reflects the murder plea at the center of the case, with the tampering, corpse-abuse and child-endangering counts arising from what happened after the boy’s death.
The case is not entirely over. Hershall’s mother, 37-year-old Ashley Johnson, is scheduled to begin trial on November 30 on gross abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and obstructing justice charges in connection with her son’s death, according to the Dayton Daily News. Johnson has been held since July 14, 2025, on a $250,000 bond.
For Dayton, Thursday’s sentencing closes the prosecution of the man who admitted killing Hershall Creachbaum Jr., while the November 30 trial will decide the remaining criminal case in a death that has already prompted lawsuits and hard questions about how the boy was failed. NewsForce247 will follow the Johnson trial as it proceeds.
Photo: Antony-22, CC BY-SA