Dad convicted in beating death of 2-year-old son; gets life in prison (St. Louis, Missouri)

The killer dad is identified as AARON LUCY.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-man-who-beat-toddler-son-to-death-gets/article_d2e14b3a-4f92-58c8-bbe6-48f0ad01ca09.html

St. Louis man who beat toddler son to death gets life in prison

April 18, 2013 11:00 am • By Joel Currier

St. Louis man convicted of beating 2-year-old son to death

Jury says Aaron Lucy, 32, committed first-degree murder in assault that left bruises and scrapes on nearly every surface of the boy's body.

ST. LOUIS • A St. Louis man convicted of brutally beating his 2-year-old son to death was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Aaron Lucy, 32, was sentenced by St. Louis Circuit Judge Robin Vannoy. In January, a jury found Lucy guilty of first-degree murder and four felony counts of child abuse, evidence tampering and armed criminal action in the death of his son, Kyle Lucy.

Prosecutors said Lucy beat Kyle to death the afternoon or evening of Dec. 26, 2010, when the two were alone together for several hours at Lucy’s apartment in the 6900 block of Chippewa Street. Other family members were at a Christmas play.

Authorities said Lucy left bruises and scrapes on almost every part of the toddler’s body and caused two skull fractures and a fatal brain injury. Blood was found throughout the apartment, including on the back of a picture frame and a broken drawer that, along with an overturned television, had been thrown across the floor.

“What Aaron took from us has been devastating,” the boy’s mother, Amanda Newman, 30, of St. Louis County, said in court Thursday. “I don’t look at people the same way as I did before. I don’t look at people and wonder what they can offer me and my life. I now look at people and wonder what they will take from me or how they (will) hurt me. The world got a little darker that day.”

Lucy made no statements during Thursday’s sentencing. He appeared in court wearing an orange city jail uniform and still sporting a mustache, but with a much shorter haircut and without the pink hair dye noticeable in his jail booking photo.

Aaron Lucy’s mother, Gloria Lucy, told the court she believes her son is not “a monster.” She said he had received psychiatric treatment since middle school and suffered from bipolar disorder. She said a mental hospital would be a more effective sentence than prison.

“My son loved his kids dearly,” Gloria Lucy said. “He never mistreated Kyle. The way Kyle died wasn’t abuse, in my opinion. It was rage. I don’t know what happened that night. I really don’t.”

Newman says she, too, still doesn’t know why Aaron Lucy killed Kyle, and says the only time she saw him lose his temper was when he was intoxicated. She said she thought he had stopped drinking alcohol at least a year earlier, but she wonders whether he was drunk the night Kyle died.

Newman said she was satisfied with the life sentence because she believes it will keep Lucy away from their daughter, Abby, who is now 7. Newman said Abby now understands it was her father who ended Kyle’s life, but Newman shields her from the horror of how the boy died.

“When she gets older, she has every right to know every detail,” she said.