Prosecutor: Man Told Toddler To Put Up Fists And Fight Before Punching Him To Death
By Cleve Bryan
CAMDEN, NJ (CBS) -- Twenty-four-year-old Zachary Tricoche of Pennsauken was arraigned in Camden County Superior Court Tuesday on murder charges.
Authorities say Tricoche got into a fight with his girlfriend over not buying groceries he liked.
The woman told detectives that during the argument he punched her two-year-old son in the chest so hard he flew into a wall.
The boy got up and Tricoche allegedly punched him again in the chest so hard he hit the wall again and was knocked unconscious.
The mother called 9-1-1 around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday saying that her son had vomited and then become unresponsive.
Prosecutor: Pennsauken man told 2yo to put up his fists and fight before punching child to death
— Cleve Bryan CBS3 (@CleveBryan) August 23, 2016
The two-year-old boy, identified by family as Jamil Baskerville Jr., was taken to Cooper University Hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.
Following Tuesday's arraignment victim's grandfather Gerome DeShields voiced his anger and outrage over the death of his grand baby.
"You're less of a man to sit there and put your hands on any type of child, no matter what age it is. He was two-years-old. There should be no reason you should want to hit him.
A medical examination revealed Jamil's liver was crushed and the boy bled to death internally.
The official cause of death is blunt force trauma and the manner of death is homicide.
Tricoche's bail was set at $1 million cash.