A Camp Pendleton Marine who pleaded guilty to fatally beating his 7-month-old son, leaving him with broken ribs and a skull fracture, will serve 15 years to life for the crime.
Stanford Morocho was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to a second degree murder charge last March.
Deputy District Attorney Ryan Saunders said between Dec. 2 and Dec. 12, Morocho had custody of his infant son.
According to the prosecutor, the Marine abused his child at various times over those ten days.
“The defendant used various forms of physical abuse on his 7-month-old child that resulted in a fractured skull, fractured ribs on both sides of the child’s body, bruising all over his body and his face,” Saunders said in court in 2014.
Early Friday morning, the baby was brought to the Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton for those injuries, as well as internal bleeding.
When doctors started examining the child, they thought the injuries were suspicious and notified Oceanside police, who opened up an investigation. Morocho was arrested later that day.
Local
The child was transferred to Rady Children’s Hospital, where he ultimately died.
Saunders said the motive for the alleged crime is not known at this time.
