A state appeals court panel on Thursday upheld a Long Beach man's conviction for the beating death of his girlfriend's 2-year-old son, who was battered from his groin to his head for wetting himself.
The three-justice panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected Genaro Salas Blanco Jr.'s claim that the trial court judge erred in refusing his request to instruct jurors on involuntary manslaughter.
Blanco was convicted of second-degree murder and assault on a child causing death in the April 16, 2007, attack on Anthony Ramirez.
"No reasonable juror could have concluded that Blanco was guilty of the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter," Associate Justice Frances Rothschild wrote on behalf of the panel.
"The evidence demonstrated that the injuries to Anthony could only have been produced by a degree of force that any reasonable person would have understood was likely to produce great bodily harm or death to a 2-year-old." The boy, who was about 3 feet tall and weighed 27 pounds, had about "50 fresh bruises from his head to his genitals," and had "fresh injuries to his lower torso that were consistent with hard punches to the abdomen," according to the appellate panel's ruling.
The toddler, who was beaten after wetting himself, died at St. Mary Medical Center shortly after being taken to the hospital from an apartment in the 1400 block of Magnolia Avenue.
Blanco, who performed CPR on the boy, maintained just before being sentenced last February that "I didn't do anything wrong."
"I was trying to save a life. Now I'm accused of taking a life," he told the judge. "I didn't commit no crime."
Blanco -- who had a February 2001 strike for residential burglary -- is serving a 50-year-to-life prison term.
The three-justice panel from the 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected Genaro Salas Blanco Jr.'s claim that the trial court judge erred in refusing his request to instruct jurors on involuntary manslaughter.
Blanco was convicted of second-degree murder and assault on a child causing death in the April 16, 2007, attack on Anthony Ramirez.
"No reasonable juror could have concluded that Blanco was guilty of the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter," Associate Justice Frances Rothschild wrote on behalf of the panel.
"The evidence demonstrated that the injuries to Anthony could only have been produced by a degree of force that any reasonable person would have understood was likely to produce great bodily harm or death to a 2-year-old." The boy, who was about 3 feet tall and weighed 27 pounds, had about "50 fresh bruises from his head to his genitals," and had "fresh injuries to his lower torso that were consistent with hard punches to the abdomen," according to the appellate panel's ruling.
The toddler, who was beaten after wetting himself, died at St. Mary Medical Center shortly after being taken to the hospital from an apartment in the 1400 block of Magnolia Avenue.
Blanco, who performed CPR on the boy, maintained just before being sentenced last February that "I didn't do anything wrong."
"I was trying to save a life. Now I'm accused of taking a life," he told the judge. "I didn't commit no crime."
Blanco -- who had a February 2001 strike for residential burglary -- is serving a 50-year-to-life prison term.
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