BLACKFOOT, Idaho (AP) - A southeastern Idaho man was sentenced to 45 years in prison for the death of an 18-month-old boy.
Jesus Castillo was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to first-degree murder for the death of Zachary Tendoy, the Post Register reported .
The 23-year-old Blackfoot man was looking after the child and kicked him after becoming irritated because the boy had crawled out of his crib, according to prosecutors. Castillo had been drinking that night, prosecutors said.
“Out of frustration and rage, in the defendant’s own words, he ’donkey kicked’ Zachary,” Bingham County Prosecutor Cleve Colson told the court.
The kick caused the child to fall back and hit his head, authorities said. The child later died at a hospital.
The boy had multiple hemorrhages, skull fractures and blunt force trauma to his head, according to an autopsy.
In a victim impact statement given to the court, the boy’s great-grandmother said Tendoy’s death had torn her family apart. Velma McCrary said the boy had lost the chance to experience key life moments, and his sister would not know her brother.
“I want to say I forgive you for this awful thing that happened, and I will leave the rest up to the Lord,” McCrary said to Castillo.
Castillo in court asked the child’s family for forgiveness, saying “I know that nothing I can say or do can ever change what has happened.”
Judge Dane Watkins Jr. said he believed that Castillo did not intend to kill the child, and he hoped Castillo could find help in prison.
“You have a drinking problem and a rage problem, and it is the combination of those two things that has brought us here today,” Watkins said to Castillo.
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Information from: Post Register, http://www.postregister.com
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