Kingston man who permanently disabled infant son has sentence reduced by 10 years

A man convicted of assaulting and catastrophically injuring his newborn son in 2008 had his prison sentence reduced on Monday from 25 years to 15 years.

Jacob Matthew Mejia, 31, was 17 years old when assaulted 6-week-old Aiden and left him with permanent brain damage, requiring constant care. A Kitsap County Superior Court jury convicted him of first-degree assault and an “aggravating circumstance” for Aiden being a “particularly vulnerable” victim.

An appellate court upheld Mejia’s conviction and sentence in 2013. However, a later state Supreme Court decision on juvenile sentencing led appellate judges to rule that since Mejia was 17 when he assaulted Aiden he was entitled to be resentenced with a judge considering his youthfulness at the time of the crime.

The court decisions, acknowledging that juveniles have immature brains compared to adults that leave them prone to poor decision-making, have led to an increasing number of resentencings for those convicted of crimes committed when they were juveniles.

Locally those include the fourth sentencing for a South Kitsap man who at age 17 raped and murdered 85-year-old Ann Presler in 1989. The new considerations when sending juveniles to prison will also loom over next month’s sentencing of Lola Luna, 17, convicted last week of second-degree murder for the stabbing death of Syanna Puryear-Tucker. At the time of Puryear-Tucker's death, Luna was 16.

Mejia had maintained his innocence at trial and claimed that his pet dog, Chewy, jumped on a couch at Mejia’s Kingston residence and that caused Aiden to fall to the floor, resulting in Aiden’s devastating injuries.

Overcome by emotion and appearing remotely from an office at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, Mejia read a brief statement where he apologized but stopped short of disavowing the dog story and did not provide an account of how Aiden was actually injured.

“I want to apologize for my actions and the devastation I caused Aiden,” Mejia said. “At 17 I had no idea of what it meant to be a father, and I failed. At 31 the consequences of my actions weigh heavy on my conscience. I know words will not change anything, but I am sorry.”

Melissa Barnum adopted Aiden after he was injured and has been caring for him. He wears diapers and eats only pureed food. He required an operation recently to correct damage done to his spine from sitting in a wheelchair, which led to complications and additional surgeries.

Barnum told Judge Bill Houser she had initially hoped Mejia would finish the sentence he had been given but after some reflection said she would be satisfied if Mejia would admit what the jury found he had done to Aiden.

“We would like him to admit that his dog didn’t do anything, that he is responsible for the abuse that Aiden endured at his hands,” Barnum said.

Barnum noted the irony in the court’s concern for Mejia’s brain development when Aiden’s brain will never develop and listed the everyday pleasures and milestones of growing up that Aiden will never know, such as running and playing outside.

“He will never have a best friend, he will never tell someone he loves them, he will never have children, go to prom, buy a car, graduate from college, or get married,” Barnum said. “He will never sneak out of the house with his friends at midnight and get to tell us that story years later because he thought we didn’t know.”

Following the sentencing, Barnum said she took comfort in the fact that she didn’t have to be in the same room as Mejia and that after she is notified he has been released from prison she will never hear from him again.

“I do feel that his comment was as close as any respectable lawyer would let a client get to saying, ‘Yes, I did it,’” Barnum told the Kitsap Sun, though she was not sure that Mejia was actually remorseful or just upset he was being punished. “That’s all we are going to get.”

The July decision by the state Division II Court of Appeals to require Mejia be resentenced found that when sentencing juveniles, judges have to consider the “hallmark features” of youth, such as impulsivity and not fully recognizing risks and consequences. The opinion applies retroactively.

This ruling followed the 2017 state Supreme Court decision in a case referred to as State v. Houston-Sconiers, one of several court rulings that followed the landmark 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama. That decision acknowledged research that found the human brain does not fully develop until a person’s mid 20s and that juveniles cannot be automatically sentenced to life in prison.

The 184-month sentence imposed Monday was agreed upon by prosecutors and Meija’s attorney.

Deputy Prosecutor Chris Jeter said courts have to consider the “youthful brain” and culpability in criminal cases involving teenagers, and the 184-month sentence accounts for the jury finding that Aiden was a “particularly vulnerable” victim.

“It really is an age where he likely wasn’t equipped to be a parent at that time,” Jeter said. “And that’s kind of clear by the actions taken here.”

Mejia's attorney, Suzanne Elliott, told Houser that Mejia was a “prime example” of what courts recognized about brain development of youths, noting that the first person Mejia called after Aiden was injured was his mother. Eliot also told Houser that Mejia waived his right to a complete resentencing, which would include testimony from experts on brain science, in order to settle the matter without as much cost and pain.

“Jacob will spend the rest of his life feeling remorse for what happened to Aiden,” Elliot said.

Elliot did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Houser called the case tragic and imposed the sentence recommended by the attorneys.

“There is nothing I can do that brings Aiden back to where he should be,” Houser said. “I can’t do that. I wish I could. In this situation I am following what I believe the law to be.”

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Washington man who disabled infant son has sentence reduced