Calif man gets 25 to life for crushing baby's head

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A Southern California man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for killing his girlfriend's 9-month-old son by repeatedly slamming the child's head into the wall to get him to stop crying.

Orange County prosecutors say 20-year-old Alexander Lucas Barnes was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. He was sentenced on Friday.

Barnes, who was 18 at the time, was babysitting Isaiah Prim-Ortiz and for the first time while the boy's mother was at a community college class in October 2009. CBS affiliate KCBS in Los Angeles reported that he played with the child at first, but started to get upset when the baby cried. Barnes took him out to the apartment walkway for 10 to 15 minutes, and when he returned the child was not crying.

According to KCBS, an autopsy showed the baby suffered multiple "linear fractures" on the right side of his head and a 4 1/2-inch fracture on the left side of his head, Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy said during the case.

Barnes wasn't the baby's biological father. McGreevy said Barnes was jealous of Prim-Ortiz's father, and though he might rekindle the relationship between him and Prim.

KCBS reported that the jury convicted Barnes on mostly circumstantial evidence since no one witnessed the abuse.

Investigators say Barnes became angry that the baby was crying and he crushed the baby's skull.

Later in the day, the defendant's mother found the baby had stopped breathing. The child was declared dead at a hospital.