A US man accused of beating his girlfriend's 2-year-old son to death allegedly told the boy to "put up his hands" to fight while the couple argued over groceries.
Zachary Tricoche, 24, from Pennsauken, New Jersey, was arraigned on murder charges last week for allegedly killing Jamil Baskerville Jr.
The youngster was sitting on a bed crying, upset after Tricoche pushed his mother during a row.
Prosecutors say the boy's mother's boyfriend punched him in the chest.
The strike caused him to fall backward and hit his head on the wall, authorities said.
He was rushed to hospital after his mother dialed 911, but died a short time later.
Doctors later said he succumbed to a devastating blow to his liver, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
During his first court appearance, Tricoche didn't enter a plea. His bail was set at US$1 million ($1.58 million) cash.
Camden County prosecutors say the beating occurred Saturday night at a Pennsauken home.
They said Tricoche and the woman started arguing because he didn't like the food she bought.
Prosecutors say the boy died from blunt force abdominal trauma.
Tricoche told the judge he had a public defender, but the lawyer wasn't with him at the arraignment.
After the hearing, Jamil's grandfather Gerome DeShields told the Inquirer that New Jersey should bring the death penalty back for Tricoche.
He said: "He should be put to sleep, because he killed my grandson. He was 2 years old. There should be no reason that you want to hit him."
Abolition
Capital punishment in New Jersey is abolished, after Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine signed a law repealing it in 2007.
In December 2005, the New Jersey Senate passed a one-year moratorium on executions by the state, with a commission to determine that the system is efficient and equitable. Governor of New Jersey Richard Codey signed the measure into law on January 12.
Although New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982, the state has not executed anyone since 1963. The abolition vote was recommended by a report from the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission.
On December 17, 2007, following the passage of an abolition bill that passed in the General Assembly by a 44–36 margin, Governor Jon Corzine signed the bill, making New Jersey the 14th state without a death penalty.
Source: The Associated Press, Wikipedia, Staff, August 30, 2019
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
