Lynn dad gets 9 to 12 years for shaking baby

SALEM – Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead sentenced a Lynn man to nine to 12 years in state prison Tuesday morning after the defendant was convicted Monday of violently shaking his then-infant baby during an incident in July 2009.”As of this moment, the defendant has never shown any remorse for what he did,” Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall said during the hearing. “It’s hard to imagine a more vulnerable victim and a more sacred relationship to be violated.”Whitehead imposed the sentence after hearing MacDougall’s argument that Jose Aquino, 29, “violently shook” his then 2-month-old daughter Elliany for what doctors testified had to be a minimum of one minute. The abuse caused serious and permanent brain injuries and vision damage, and a portion of the child’s skull had to be removed to relieve swelling.”(The child) has what app-ears to be a permanent alteration of social circumstances of life,” Whitehead said. “And she will never know the life she would have had before this incident.”A jury found Aquino guilty of one count of assault and battery on a child with substantial injury Monday afternoon after about three hours of deliberation. The Dominican Republic native has never admitted to shaking the baby and he did not testify during the trial.Wearing a denim jacket, jeans and white sneakers, he did not react outwardly to the sentencing. His family was not present at the hearing.Whitehead found the infant’s mother, Maely Quinones, of Lynn, innocent Monday due to a lack of evidence against her.Susan Richard, a social worker for the now 2-year-old girl, read an impact statement on behalf of the child’s foster parents.”She does have the knowledge she is different from other kids and is aware she is fragile,” Richard read from the statement.Elliany goes to no fewer than eight doctor’s appointments every week, Richard said, and becomes anxious whenever she is not wearing the special helmet that protects the portion of her head not protected by her skull. MacDougall said Elliany suffered from “night terrors” as an infant and “reacts badly to men who speak foreign languages.””I don’t feel the sentence could be long enough,” Richard read. “(Elliany) doesn’t get to go in front of a panel for good behavior. She was given a life sentence.”Whitehead said the rarity of shaken baby cases made the sentencing difficult and that he was “handicapped” by the lack of clear circumstances surrounding the crime. But Aquino did not possess any of the mitigating factors that would prompt him to lower his sentence, he said, such as being extremely young or unaware of the dangers of shaking a baby.”What I found interesting was that every juror we interviewed was aware of Shaken Baby Syndrome, or at least that you don’t shake a baby,” Whitehead said. “I’m confident Mr. Aquino was also aware.”MacDougall asked that the maximum sentence of 15 years be imposed, saying the infant “came as close to being a homicide as a child can be.” Whitehead did not give Aquino the maximum sentence, he said, because the infant survived her injuries.Defense attorney John Haggerty of Salem recommended a sentence of four to six years, citing Aquino’s lack of a criminal record and his status as a legal U.S. resident. Haggerty filed an appeal immediately following the sentencing. He declined to comment.Whitehead also took into account in determining the sentence the “social cost and tremendous expense even to date and going forward” of Elliany’s medical treatment and care, all of which is absorbed by the state, he said.The court credited Aquino with 970 days already served and he will serve the remainder of his sentence at Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Cedar Junction in Walpole, Whitehead said.Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].