{"id":305755,"date":"2026-05-23T09:22:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T09:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/305755\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T09:22:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T09:22:19","slug":"cincinnati-dad-sentenced-in-daughters-dog-mauling-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/305755\/","title":{"rendered":"Cincinnati dad sentenced in daughter\u2019s dog mauling death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Video from previous coverage.<\/p>\n

CINCINNATI (WXIX) – A Cincinnati father will spend at least five years in jail for the death of his daughter.<\/p>\n

Warren Houston, who was found guilty<\/a> of involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and endangering children, was sentenced to five to 7.5 years on Friday, a judge announced.<\/p>\n

The judge also ordered Houston to be on probation for two to five years after he is released from jail.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s sentencing stems from the death of his 3-year-old, Kingsley Wright, who was mauled to death by her father\u2019s dogs.<\/p>\n

Judge Virginia Tallent found Houston ignored known, substantial risks — a defective dog cage, signs of an aggressive animal, and Kingsley left on a couch with no barrier.<\/p>\n

Houston closed his bedroom door and never heard her screaming. When he realized the dogs were loose, he didn\u2019t check on her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not a momentary lapse in judgment, sir, it was not,\u201d Judge Tallent said. \u201cThe reckless conditions identified by the court existed over a period of time and culminated in a death that cannot be reversed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WarrenWarren Houston was charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and child endangerment.(FOX19 NOW)3-year-old died of massive blood loss<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s trial was a bench trial, meaning the judge, not the jury, decided the verdict.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s two pit bull terriers escaped their cage and mauled Kingsley Wright, who was asleep on the couch just feet away on Dec. 27, 2024. <\/p>\n

Houston and Colbert were asleep in a bedroom down the hall with the door closed.<\/p>\n

The attack lasted about 27 minutes. The coroner ruled Kingsley died of a dislocated neck and blood loss.<\/p>\n

[Watch more from FOX19 NOW]<\/a>\u2018Known risk\u2019: Judge<\/p>\n

Prosecutors argued that Houston showed reckless disregard for his daughter\u2019s safety by leaving her to sleep in the same room as two dangerous dogs who were kept in a single cage with a broken latch. <\/p>\n

The judge agreed, saying in court that there was a \u201cknown risk\u201d that the cage was inadequate.<\/p>\n

Dogs had no violent history: Defense<\/p>\n

His attorney called the attack a tragic accident.<\/p>\n

The dogs had no violent history, and Houston was not reckless, he countered. <\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here<\/a> with a brief description.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WXIX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Video from previous coverage. CINCINNATI (WXIX) – A Cincinnati father will spend at least five years in jail…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59062,59063,9914,10241,59061,110781,110783,56,58,57,110782,95888,223,110780,110779,110784,110778,59060],"class_list":["post-305755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-59062","tag-channel","tag-cincinnati","tag-fox","tag-fox19","tag-hamilton-county-bench-trial","tag-hamilton-county-common-pleas-court-judge-victoria-tallent","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-judge-issues-decision-in-bench-trial-of-father-charged-in-toddler-daughters-dog-mauling-death","tag-kingsley-wright","tag-news","tag-pit-bull-attack","tag-roselawn-dog-mauling","tag-victoria-tallent","tag-warren-houston-trial","tag-wxix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}