COLFAX A 23-year-old Tekoa man was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison for fracturing an infant's skull last summer when the child wouldn't stop crying.

Stacy Michael Dozier pleaded guilty in January to first-degree assault of a child, Harley Sharp, whose skull was fractured in two places after Dozier slammed the baby's head against his knee. The incident occurred June 23, 1993, at the Tekoa home of Harley's mother.

Whitman County Superior Judge Wallis Friel reflected on the power of his position as he sentenced Dozier.

''I wish it gave me enough clout to undo the damage to Harley,'' Friel said.

The boy, 3 months old at the time of the assault, continues to suffer weakness on the left side of his body and will likely never have normal mental abilities, Ronald Vincent testified by telephone at the sentencing hearing. Vincent, a neurosurgeon who treated Harley shortly after the incident, said the injuries were similar to those an infant would suffer if ejected from a vehicle during a traffic accident or if he fell from a building a distance of at least two stories.

''I would doubt very seriously they were caused by just one blow,'' Vincent said. The fracture to the back of Harley's head was of the depressed variety, he said, and the other crack in his skull was widening because of swelling from the child's injured brain.

John Snyder, Dozier's court-appointed attorney, disputed claims his client struck the baby more than once.

Darla Copeland Grose, Whitman County deputy prosecutor, asked Friel to sentence Dozier to the maximum term under Washington's standard sentencing range: 10 years and three months. State sentencing ranges are determined by seriousness of a crime and an offender's criminal history.

Dozier has no known previous convictions.

Grose noted first-degree assault of a child is a Class A felony that carries a possible life term, ''a sentence this infant is going to be serving'' in terms of his mental and physical development.

Snyder argued for the low end of the range: seven years and nine months.

Friel split the difference.

The judge declined the recommendation of corrections officer Kevin Vogeler, who asked Friel to throw out the standard range and impose an exceptional sentence of 15 years.

Grose asked Vogeler if Dozier ever provided a satisfactory explanation of what happened the day the baby was injured.

''Absolutely not,'' Vogeler said.

Vogeler's presentence investigation and a doctor's psychological evaluation of Dozier both mentioned a lack of remorse on his part.

The remorse is there, Snyder said. Dozier just isn't capable of expressing that emotion to people he doesn't know and trust.

''He had pictures of Harley up in his jail cell,'' he said. Snyder added Dozier plans to help provide for the child with whatever limited wages he can make in prison.

Snyder said Dozier was an abuse victim as a child. When he was 4 years old, for example, Dozier soiled his pants, and his stepmother wrapped his face in the garment, Snyder said.

The frustrations of a lifetime reached a flash point when Dozier couldn't get the baby to stop crying, Snyder said.

Dozier, in a black blazer and khaki pants, wept through portions of Friday's hearing.

He apologized during a brief statement for injuring Harley, who is now in a foster home.

''If I could go back and fix it, I would,'' Dozier said.

Dozier has been in Whitman County Jail for nearly a year, and he will get credit for that time served against his prison term.

Grose said good behavior could earn Dozier as much as 15 percent off the nine years.

Friel ordered Dozier to serve two years in community placement upon release from prison.