Baby killer, 26, who shook his girlfriend’s 17-week-old boy to death while she was at work is jailed for at least five-and-a-half years
- Jesse Vinaccia, 26, was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years prison time
- He shook his girlfriend’s newborn baby to death while she was at work
- 17-week-old Kaleb died in hospital from his injuries in January 2016
A Victorian man who killed his girlfriend’s baby boy has been sentenced to eight-and-a-half-years’ jail.
Jesse Vinaccia, 26, was found guilty of child homicide in June after he shook or manhandled 17-week-old Kaleb in January 2016 while his then-girlfriend was at work.
Vinaccia had moved in with young mother Erin Baylis-Clarke and her newborn only a few weeks before the incident.
Kaleb died in hospital from severe bleeding of the brain on January 30, a week after Vinaccia found the child unresponsive in his cot.
Jesse Vinaccia, 26, was found guilty of child homicide in June after he shook or manhandled 17-week-old Kaleb in January 2016 while his then-girlfriend was at work
Ms Baylis-Clarke previously told the court ‘being a mother without a child to nurture is so empty.’
‘I don’t get to see him grow up, never get to hear him call me mum or tell me he loves me,’ she said.
The young mother previously said she still struggled with grief and had suicidal thoughts.
She separated with Vinaccia the day Kaleb’s life support was switched off.
Kaleb’s father Shannon Spackman, also said his life was empty without his son.
‘I can’t buy Kaleb his first bike, his first football or anything any more,’ he said in a statement read to the court by his mother, Lisa.
Vinaccia had moved in with young mother Erin Baylis-Clarke (right) and her newborn only a few weeks before the incident
‘I will miss out on his first words, his first steps, his first day at school. Knowing I will never be able to hold my little boy again breaks my heart every day.’
Justice Michael Croucher believed Vinaccia was remorseful, citing footage of a police interview in which ‘he looks like a completely broken man. He knows he has done something horrible’.
‘I don’t think I’ve seen a person as distressed as he was in the interview in my time,’ he said.
Defence lawyer Glenn Casement described Vinaccia as a ‘young man who will carry the burden of what’s occurred for the remainder of his days’.
After Kaleb’s death, Vinaccia told police he had ‘put him down in the cot a bit hard’ after arguing with the boy’s father via Facebook.
Vinaccia was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years’ jail with a non-parole period of at least five-and-a-half years on Monday.