Father goes on trial for murder in death of infant son in Deltona

Julius “JJ” Vazquez was acting like a normal infant just shy of 3 months old on Nov. 14, 2018. He was running a slight fever of 100.1 and he was a little fussy, so his mother, who needed to make a phone call, asked his father to take him.

Emanuelle Vazquez took his son out to a swing in the yard in their Deltona home, Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak told jurors on Tuesday.

A short time later, Vazquez returned to the house holding the infant. But the child was lifeless, limp, non-responsive and barely breathing, Urbanak said.

Vazquez, who turns 33 on Wednesday, is on trial charged with first-degree felony murder and aggravated child abuse. He faces life in prison if convicted.

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Circuit Judge Leah Case is presiding over the trial at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach.

Vazquez sat between his two-public defenders, John Selden and James Smith, while Urbanak made his opening statement.

Urbanak said that after Vazquez entered the house with the unresponsive infant, people at the home called 911 and began CPR. Law enforcement, which happened to be nearby on another assignment, also responded. Among the responders was Volusia County Sheriff Sgt. Don Maxwell, who took over CPR until paramedics arrived.

Julius was then taken to a Halifax medical facility in Deltona before being transferred to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach.

But Julius would die the next day.

Urbanak, who is prosecuting the case along with Assistant State Attorney Sarah Thomas, told jurors they would hear from Dr. Noel Palma, a visiting associate medical examiner, who would testify that there was evidence of healing rib fractures and prior head injuries to the child.

The child had also suffered a recent laceration of the liver and a recent brain injury, he said.

The manner of death was ruled a homicide and the cause of death was blunt force trauma, Urbanak said.

Urbanak said once the child suffered the liver laceration, he would have been unable to eat, including the full bottle of formula he had between 1:30 and 2 p.m. before Vazquez took him outside.

The brain injury would have rendered the infant unconscious and unresponsive, just as he was when Vazquez brought him back into the house, Urbanak said.

Assistant Public Defender John Selden said in his opening statement that Vazquez had cooperated with investigators.

Selden said Vazquez and Stephanie Jones had a daughter who was about a year old at the time and there had never been any problem involving that child or any of the other children in the household.

Selden said Jones shared three other children with an ex-husband; the ex-husband would come to the house and care for his children as well as the two children Jones had with Vazquez.

Selden said that on the day of the incident, Jones' ex-husband had been at the house with the children. Some of the children had gone to school.

Selden said there is no proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the only time the child could have been injured was when he was with Vazquez.

Selden said that at one point Jones accused her ex-husband.

He said it had been a long and difficult road for Vazquez, who had not only lost his son but had lost everything else.

“He had no motivation, he had no reason to commit these crimes,” Selden said.

The trial continues Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Trial begins for Deltona father accused of murdering infant son