This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Draper father was sentenced to prison Tuesday for shaking his one-month-old son to death.
Mijail Alejandro Russell-Torres, 25, pleaded guilty in 3rd District Court to child abuse homicide and child abuse with serious physical injury, both second-degree felonies for which he will serve two concurrent sentences of up to 15 years in the Utah State Prison.
Russell-Torres reached a November plea deal with prosecutors, in which the county agreed to drop an initial charge of first-degree felony murder, punishable by life in prison, in exchange for guilty pleas to the other two charges.
The infant died at Primary Children's Medical Center in August 2012, where doctors found injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome, according to the charging documents.
An autopsy showed signs of fatal head and brain damage, as well as evidence that one of the baby's ribs was likely fractured at a different time, court documents state.
Russell-Torres admitted to police that he had violently shaken the baby forward and backward for a minute or two after he became frustrated with the baby's crying, according to charging documents. He said he also had shaken the baby on some previous occasion, police wrote.
Russell-Torres was taken into custody Tuesday and will begin his sentence immediately.
Twitter: marissa_jae