A Los Angeles man has pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in connection with his 11-month-old son’s death in a Long Beach motel room.
Jeremy Wade, now 26, was immediately sentenced Wednesday to 15 years to life in state prison, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The case stems from the Feb. 9, 2022, death of his son, Isaiah Gaston, in a room at the Scottish Inns Long Beach in the 5400 block of Atlantic Avenue.
Long Beach police officers found Wade and his son inside the room while responding to a report of an alleged incident of domestic violence involving the baby’s mother.
The boy was “unresponsive and officers began rendering life-saving measures until Long Beach Fire Department personnel arrived and transported the child to a nearby hospital — where he later succumbed to his injuries,” according to police.
Homicide detectives subsequently “discovered evidence that Wade caused serious bodily injury” to the baby, which “resulted in his death,” police said.
The boy died of multiple blunt force traumatic injuries, according to records from the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner.
Wade was arrested that day by Long Beach police and has remained behind bars since then, jail records show.
Three other counts against him — assault on a child causing death, false imprisonment by violence and a misdemeanor count of battering a spouse or girlfriend — were dismissed as a result of his plea, according to the District Attorney’s Office.