A U.S. Navy corpsman will spend decades in prison for the murder of his girlfriend's 19-month-old son, a San Diego judge ruled Wednesday.
Brett Brown was convicted in September of murdering 19-month-old Lucas Orlando. The toddler died of multiple skull fractures and suffered a broken arm and a leg after he was discovered unconscious in an Alpine condo.
On Wednesday, Brown was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Deputies were told Orlando had fallen when they were called to the condominium complex on Arnold Way on Jan. 11, 2016.
Orlando was rushed to the hospital where he died two days later. The medical examiner later determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma.
The day after the toddler's death, Brown was arrested by San Diego County Sheriff's deputies. A Navy spokesperson told NBC 7 Brown was a corpsman attached to the Naval Medical Center San Diego.
Brown would occasionally care for Orlando, according to Deputy District Attorney Chantal de Mauregne.
The toddler's mother, Renee Fournier, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in October and was ordered to serve four years of probation.
