An 18-year-old murderer who severely beat his 8-month-old newborn daughter to the point that her skull was completely fractured received a 100-year sentence.
After admitting to killing newborn Raija Straight in July 2018 in Des Moines, Iowa, Jayden Straight was given the life sentence on Friday.
At the time of the murder, the murderer, who was 17 years old, left his kid with severe internal wounds, including multiple skull fractures, broken ribs, a burst spleen, and significant retinal haemorrhaging.
Straight’s partner Ri Bambino left him in the care of their tiny daughter on the afternoon she was fatally injured to go and run errands.
Bambino returned to find her baby horrifically injured, with Straight subsequently going on the run.
After handing himself in the next day, he was unable to provide any explanation for the wounds inflicted on Raija, and has since failed to provide any motive for his daughter’s death.
A doctor who treated the baby in hospital before she died said the injuries were ‘from a deliberate assault and could not be explained as unintentional or accidental.’
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The Des Moines Register reported that Straight was jailed for 50 years for second-degree murder.
He was handed a further five decade-long sentences for three counts of willful injury and two counts of child endangerment resulting in serious injury.
All six sentences will run consecutively, meaning Straight will not be released from jail before 2119.
Paying tribute to Raija, the infant’s great-grandma Robin Head said: ‘When I saw this child’s face and what she has brought to me for the last eight months of her life.
‘I can’t never explain that feeling of holding her, laughing with her, touching her, walking with her, crawling with her.’