Father sentenced to life plus 30 years for killing infant son in Deltona

A judge sentenced a father to life in prison plus 30 years for killing his infant son, who was not yet 3 months old when he suffered fatal injuries at their Deltona home. The father complained at his sentencing that he was innocent and the real killer remained free.

A jury of seven women and five men took a little more than an hour Thursday to find Emanuelle Vazquez, 33, guilty of first-degree felony murder and aggravated child abuse in the trial at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach.

His son, Julius “JJ” Vazquez, was just shy of turning 3 months old when he died Nov. 15, 2018. At the time, Vazquez was living in Deltona; he was living in Orlando when he was arrested in 2020.

The trial:Father stands trial for murder in death of infant son in Deltona

Father arrested:Father arrested in 2018 homicide of Deltona infant

Spared death:Marcus Pinckney spared death sentence, will serve life in prison

Vazquez testified that he had taken his son outside to a swing in the yard at 2807 Grayton St. to try and calm him because the child was fussy. But Vazquez testified that after being on the swing for a short time his son went limp. Vazquez said he tried to revive the child by pouring water on his head with a hose. In the process, Vazquez said he dropped him.

He said he picked the child up and went back inside the house to tell his wife and they called 911. Vazquez did not initially tell investigators that he had dropped the child. During his testimony Vazquez tried to cast blame on his son's mother’s ex-husband.

Circuit Judge Leah Case sentenced Vazquez to the mandatory life in prison on the first-degree felony murder charge. She then sentenced him to the maximum 30 years in prison on the aggravated child abuse charge. The judge said the 30-year sentence would be consecutive to the life sentence.

Case noted that Vazquez never mentioned during interviews with investigators after the child’s death that the mother’s ex-husband posed a threat to the children. Vazquez instead said the ex-husband was trustworthy and he had no problems with him.

"Not once, not once did you talk about him ever being violent until you got on the stand today," Case said. "I did not find your testimony credible, reasonable or believable."

The judge noted that a medical expert had testified that the child had suffered injuries as if he had been flung off a speeding motorcycle in a crash. The child’s liver was nearly cut in half and his spleen was lacerated. The child also suffered a brain injury. She said the credible medical evidence showed there was "no way" the injuries could have occurred without immediate major symptoms, including loss of consciousness.

Vazquez appeared to cry at times after the verdict, wiping at his eyes with tissue.

"Life is not fair in general, but one thing I can assure the court and everyone in here is that I never caused any harm to my son," said Vazquez, adding he was still grieving his son. "The one who actually did it gets away with it and is still out there in society while I've got to serve life for a crime I never committed. And I think the court was very unfair. It was not right for somebody that's innocent to be sentenced to prison for life over something that I never did."

Vazquez’s mother, Lourdes Caballero, also spoke saying that while her son had made mistakes in life, he would have never harmed his son. She wept in the courtroom after the verdict and as her son was sentenced to life.

During closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak, who prosecuted the case along with Assistant State Attorney Sarah Thomas, said that investigators don't know how Julius suffered the deadly injuries. Urbanak also said that he didn't believe Vazquez meant to kill Julius. But he added that intent was not needed to show first-degree felony murder. What was needed and what the jury found was that Vazquez also committed aggravated child abuse.

Assistant Public Defender John Selden, who represented Vazquez along with Assistant Public Defender James Smith, argued that prosecutors had not shown beyond a reasonable doubt that Vazquez was responsible for his son's injuries. He said Vazquez had cooperated with investigators from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office. Selden argued there was no proof that the injuries happened when the child was with Vazquez and they could have happened hours earlier.

Selden said that Vazquez and the mother, Stephanie Jones, had another child, a daughter, and there had been no problems involving her.

On the aggravated child abuse charge, Urbanak asked the judge to sentence Vazquez to the 30 years consecutive to the life sentence. Selden asked the judge to sentence him to 10 years concurrent.

Vazquez has a felony conviction in Orange County for cocaine and marijuana possession from 2016. He was also charged with delivery of cocaine in 2013 in Orange County, but adjudication was withheld in that case, meaning it was not considered a conviction on his record.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Deltona father sentenced to life plus 30 years in infant son's murder