Prosecutor: Man Told Toddler To Put Up Fists Before Punching Him To Death
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CAMDEN, NJ -— Twenty-four-year-old Zachary Tricoche of Pennsauken was arraigned in Camden County Superior Court Tuesday on murder charges.
Authorities say Tricoche got into a fight with his girlfriend over not buying groceries he liked.
This enraged Tricoche, who allegedly told her two-year-old son to “put his hands up” and fight him like a man. Zachary punched him with so much power that the child stumbled backward and crashed into the wall behind him.
The boy got up and Tricoche allegedly punched him again in the chest so hard he hit the wall again and was knocked unconscious.
The mother called 9-1-1 around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday saying that her son had vomited and then become unresponsive.
The two-year-old boy, identified by family as Jamil Baskerville Jr., was taken to Cooper University Hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.
A medical examination revealed Jamil’s liver was crushed and the boy bled to death internally.
The official cause of death is blunt force trauma and the manner of death is homicide.
Tricoche’s bail was set at $1 million cash.