Ocean County father gets 25 years for brutal killing of 3-month-old daughter

👶 A Lakewood father is sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing his 3-month-old girl

⚖️ Ruben Santiago pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter earlier this year.

💔 The infant suffered severe injuries, including a skull fracture and brain bleed.

LAKEWOOD — A 37-year-old Ocean County father who admitted to causing his newborn baby’s violent death is sent to prison for a quarter of a century.

On Friday, Ruben Santiago, of Lakewood, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in Ocean County Superior Court, for causing deadly blunt force trauma to his three-month-old daughter.

Lakewood father pleaded guilty in infant death case

Santiago pleaded guilty in January to aggravated manslaughter, taking sole responsibility for the awful death a year ago.

According to the Ocean County medical examiner, the infant died from extremely violent injuries, including a brain bleed and skull fracture.

Read More: NJ mom and dad both charged with murder of 4-year-old

An Ocean County plea deal is entered. (Canva, Townsquare Media Illustration)

Autopsy revealed multiple older injuries

An autopsy also showed seven broken ribs and a broken wrist, which had already begun to heal, revealing they had happened sometime before the baby’s death.

The baby’s mother, Caitlin Gibson, was then released on pretrial monitoring to be reunited with her family, including a surviving child.

“From day one, Caitlin and her family have maintained her innocence,” defense attorney Mitchell Ansell previously said in a written statement received by New Jersey 101.5, calling his client’s release the “light at the end of the criminal justice tunnel.”

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