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A driver for a Richmond day-care center faces 15 years in prison after being convicted in the death of a 13-month-old boy who was left in a van used by the center on a hot July day.

Keishawn L. Whitfield was convicted yesterday by Richmond Circuit Judge Beverly W. Snukals after a trial that lasted nearly three hours. Whitfield, 24, is to be sentenced Jan. 8, when he could get up to 10 years for involuntary manslaughter and five years for felony child neglect.

Whitfield was the first of two defendants to be tried for the July 6 death of Andrew Johnson. Valerot Whitlow, Whitfield's mother and the owner of the Yellow Brick Road Day Care and Learning Center, faces a single count of felony child neglect.

Whitlow surrendered her state day-care license and closed her facility on Fourth Avenue in the Highland Park neighborhood shortly after the child's death.

Whitfield had been the center's driver for nearly five years, and testimony yesterday indicated he had taken a number of training courses related to his job.

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