A San Diego father has received a 10-year sentence in state prison for his role in the death of his 7-week-old daughter, after a plea agreement was reached in San Diego Superior Court for the charge of felony child abuse, reported The Times of San Diego. Jaime Santillanes, 39, admitted to inflicting injuries on a child under 5 years of age, the plea comes before what was to be a murder trial, said Steve Walker, a spokesman for the District Attorney.
On the evening of March 18, 2023, officers responded to a call at Santillanes' University City home where his daughter, Genevieve Santillanes, had stopped breathing; transported to a hospital, she died three days later, and an investigation into the incident by the San Diego Police Department in consultation with medical personnel with specialized training in child-abuse related injuries led to Santillanes' arrest for initially murder and assault but later changed to felony child abuse during the court proceedings, NBC San Diego detailed.
Santillanes' defense attorney argued that the father had accidentally fallen asleep while holding Genevieve, leading to a fatal accident when he collapsed onto her, while prosecution doctors and pediatrician Dr. Mallory McPhee at Rady Children's Hospital disagreed with this explanation, stating the child's multiple skull fractures were inconsistent with such an incident, rather pointing toward something "extremely traumatic," such as a several-story fall, or a significant car accident, as obtained by NBC San Diego.
Throughout the proceedings, Deputy District Attorney Erin Casey noted the difficulty in child abuse cases where little direct evidence or witnesses are available to shed light on the nature of injuries, but insisted on the specialized medical opinion which rated Santillanes' own account as "implausible"; her position supported by the medical evidence suggesting a much more violent cause of death as reported by the NBC San Diego interview with Dr. McPhee. Santillanes remains without bail at the South Bay Detention Facility, following the dismissal of the murder and assault charges in light of his guilty plea for the lesser charge.
