UPDATE, JULY 27, 3:55 P.M.: 25-year-old Christian Trinidad Gonzalez was convicted today of murdering his 2-month-old
baby daughter by throwing her onto a couch and shaking her in his Santa
Ana apartment.
During the sixth day of his trial, and in the middle of cross-examination of his own testimony, Gonzalez asked to speak with his attorney. The defendant then changed his plea of not guilty to guilty of one count of second-degree murder.
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The judge immediately sentenced Gonzalez to 15 years to life in a state prison.
Before he changed his plea, he was looking at the possibility of 25 years to life.
ORIGINAL POST, JULY 19, 11:53 A.M.: Trial was expected to begin this morning for a 25-year-old father accused of murdering his 2-month-old
baby daughter by throwing her onto a couch and shaking her in his Santa
Ana apartment.
Christian Trinidad Gonzalez could get 25 years to
life in state prison if convicted of the charges pending against him at the Santa Ana courthouse.
According to prosecutors, Gonzalez returned home from work and sat down for dinner with his family on March 17, 2009. After dinner, Gonzalez's wife took their 2-year-old daughter to the apartment complex's laundry room while the father stayed behind to watch their 2-month-old daughter, Iliana Gonzalez.
Apparently frustrated by Iliana's crying, Christian Gonzalez is
accused of violently throwing her onto a couch and then shaking Iliana her after realizing she was not breathing.
She was rushed to St.
Joseph Hospital of Orange, where doctors contacted police after finding the baby suffered “abusive head trauma,
including significant bleeding inside her head, severe retinal
hemorrhages in both eyes, and brain swelling,” according to the Orange County District Attorney's office.
Iliana, who never regained consciousness, was kept on
ventilators for two days before being declared dead two days after the shaking.
Her father was slapped with one felony count of murder and one felony count of assault on a child with force likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in death. Senior Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy of the Homicide Unit is trying to make those charges stick today at the Central Justice Center.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.