Jonathan Alicea will spend the next 30 years of his life in a Florida prison for beating a 2-year-old boy unconscious and pouring boiling water on his face in an attempt to revive him.
Police say Alicea, of Kissimmee, Fla., was babysitting his girlfriend’s son, Yariel Alexander-Mateo, and the boy’s six-year-old sister on the night of Oct. 12, 2009, when the boy soiled his diaper, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
The 2-year-old refused to change his diaper, which angered the then 19-year-old Alicea. He told police he approached the boy and punched him in his head, knocking the boy unconscious immediately.
Alicea then placed the boy inside an empty dresser drawer and tried to revive him by pouring boiling water on his face.
According to court documents, Alicea “boiled a pot of water and then poured it on (Jariel) stating he believed it would revive him.”
Court documents show Alicea waited 30 minutes for his girlfriend to return home then rushed outside with the boy wrapped in a blanket.
An autopsy found the boy died from multiple head and brain injuries plus burns covering 35 percent of his body.
Alicea told police he didn’t call 911 right away because his cell phone was disconnected and “he didn’t like to depend on neighbors for anything.”
He initially pled guilty on May 3, 2011, but he withdrew his plea a month later and the case remained in the court system for four more years, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
As a juvenile, Alicea, the product of a single mom, was arrested twice at ages 12 and 13 for sexually abusing his classmates. He received court-ordered psychiatric treatment under a state Baker Act evaluation, records show.
