A Clairton man will spend 22 to 44 years in state prison for murdering his wife's 2-year-old grandson while the boy was in his care.

Eric Dennis, 44, was sentenced Wednesday by Allegheny County Judge Beth Lazzara, who found him guilty of third-degree murder in November.

Allegheny County prosecutors said Dennis was baby-sitting Tashaud Thompson and his younger brother on March 22, 2010, while their grandmother was running errands.

When the woman returned, the child was limp, making a snoring sound and had a tuft of hair pulled from his head.

Johnson denied injuring the child, but later said the boy had fallen. But Lazzara determined that only Dennis could have caused the "startling" brain injuries that caused the boy's death the next day.