Man Beats 4-Month-Old Boy To Death On Discovering He Wasn't His Father

This is a representational image showing a mother holding the foot of her newborn baby at a hospital in Nantes, western France, July 7, 2018. Getty Images/Loic Venance

A 33-year-old Tennessee man beat a 4-month-old boy to death after finding the infant wasn’t his son, police said Wednesday. Avila-Agurcia, 33, of Memphis, was charged for the April 12 death of the infant.

Police said they responded to a residence on Court Avenue and found the boy’s mother who said the infant was having trouble breathing. The baby, named Alexander Lizondro-Chacon, was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead from blunt force trauma to the head, according to an affidavit of the complaint.

Local media reported, citing officials, that the boy also had pneumonia and suffered a fractured skull and rib.

Avila-Agurcia and the infant's mother Mercy Lizondro-Chacon said, in their statements to investigators two days later, they cared for the infant, but had no idea how he got injured.

Detectives however treated Avila-Agurcia as a suspect after Lizondro-Chacon told them the man admitted to striking the baby several times in the head. The affidavit said the man was enraged after he found out he wasn’t the boy’s father. The Shelby County medical examiner ruled the boy’s death as a homicide.

Avila-Agurcia was arrested and taken into custody without bond. Avila-Agurcia was charged with first-degree murder in perpetration of aggravated child abuse and first-degree murder in perpetration of aggravated child neglect. He is expected to make his first appearance in General Sessions Court on Thursday.

After the arrest, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the suspect's name was an alias — his real name is Carlos Zuniga-Aviles, and his identity was confirmed through biometrics, according to local media WREG. Authorities said he is a Honduran national staying in the country illegally. He was removed from the country five previous times.

In another incident, a Lakewood, Colorado, father was convicted Wednesday in the death of his 3-month-old daughter and was sentenced to 42 years in prison. Kelly Kerr, 39, was found guilty in March in the July 2017 death of Olivia. The child suffered a major skull fracture, a second skull fracture, bilateral retinal hemorrhages, multiple rib fractures, and bruising on her face and jaw. An autopsy revealed the cause of death was blunt force trauma.