Many of the people most endeared to 13-month-old Tyler Davis — and most devastated by his death — converged in a Butler County courtroom Thursday to learn the punishment awaiting the toddler's killer.

Jarred Knight, who once raised Tyler as his son, was issued the statutory maximum sentence for third-degree murder: 20 to 40 years in prison.

Tyler died June 24, 2007, a day after incurring massive head injuries while in the care of Knight, now 24, of Harrisville.

Prosecutors believe Knight, who only weeks earlier learned he was not Tyler's father, slammed the boy's head into a bathroom wall.

Although Knight testified during his four-day trial that Tyler was hurt accidentally, the jury convicted him of the homicide as well as child endangerment and reckless endangerment.

The jury decided against a conviction of first-degree murder, which would have made the death penalty a possible outcome.

On Wednesday, county Judge Timothy McCune said he struggled to fashion a sentence for Knight until he recalled the testimony of a doctor about the force used on Tyler's head.

"He said it was akin to the child being hit by a baseball bat," McCune said.