Dad pleads guilty to 9-year-old daughter's death; was originally assaulted at just 2 weeks of age (Rome, New York)

Dad is identified as JOSHUA CASTELLO.

http://www.uticaod.com/article/20140328/NEWS/140329259?refresh=true

Father pleads guilty to shaken daughter's delayed death

The severe brain trauma 2-week-old Lorelei Castello suffered in 2003 never got better, and it was only a matter of time until her father, Joshua Castello of Rome, would have to pay the price for his reckless actions that day.

Rocco LaDuca
Posted Mar. 28, 2014 @ 10:21 am
Updated Mar 28, 2014 at 3:40 PM

UTICA

For more than nine years, young Lorelei Castello could neither walk nor talk, could barely see and lived off a feeding tube – all because she was violently shaken by her father when she was just two weeks old.

The severe brain trauma Lorelei suffered in 2003 never got better, and it was only a matter of time until her father, Joshua Castello of Rome, would have to pay the price for his reckless actions that day.

On Sept. 13, 2012, Lorelei died from a respiratory ailment linked to her shaken baby syndrome. And on Friday, 33-year-old Castello took responsibility for her death by pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

“I’m sure he wishes he would have acted differently on that day,” at a time when Castello was young and probably stressed from working a lot, said his public defender, Leland McCormac. “He’s never ever tried to deny it or say the injuries were caused by any other fashion or manner.”

Castello will face no more – and possibly less – than three to nine years in prison when he is sentenced by Oneida County Court Judge Barry M. Donalty on Friday, May 23. Because the long-lasting effect of Lorelei’s injuries was not yet clear at the time she was shaken, Castello previously received only probation in Herkimer County for the 2003 assault.

Now that Lorelei has died, even though Castello’s prison sentence will probably amount to only a few years, his attorney said Castello has already spent more than the past decade haunted by the guilt from his daughter’s suffering.

“He’s endured the most severe punishment that any father could endure – the loss of his own child at his own hands,” McCormac said.

After the proceeding, Lorelei’s mother walked out of the courtroom sobbing, but she declined to comment as she left.

The prosecutor, First Assistant District Attorney Dawn Catera Lupi, then explained how this tragedy is a reminder of what can happen when people disregard how fragile a child can be.

“I think this really is a lesson to a lot of people when care is not taken and people act recklessly toward an infant,” Lupi said. “Your actions toward a very small infant can lead to such a devastating outcome.”