Photo: Nassau County Police Department
Editor's note: The following article contains disturbing details cited in a criminal complaint regarding an ongoing investigation.
An illegal migrant is accused of killing his own 2-month-old daughter because he couldn't take her crying anymore, prosecutors said during a court hearing Wednesday (April 9) morning via the New York Post.
Marlon Rabanales-Pretzantzin, 20, of Guatemala, pleaded not guilty to murder in relation to the March 7 killing of Liseyda Rabanales-Barrios inside his Inwood home. The 2-month-old baby was reported to have suffered several broken ribs, bruises on her head, a dislocated spine and severe hemorrhaging in her neck during the incident.
“In the end, he couldn’t take it anymore,” Nassau County DA Anne Donnelly told reporters via the New York Post on Wednesday. Rabanles-Pretzantzin allegedly grabbed his daughter and slapped her face multiple times, punching her in the stomach repeatedly before picking her up and violently shaking her, at which point he threw her onto the bed and pressed both fists into her body with force.
The suspect reportedly then brought his daughter to the home of a neighbor, who called 911 and rushed her to the hospital where she died, with the father of two initially claiming his daughter had choked on formula and later changing his story to telling police he had fallen asleep while holding her, causing the infant falling off the bed and onto the floor. Rabanles-Pretzantzin eventually confessed to all of the accusations made by the prosecution, despite his not guilty plea.
An autopsy showed that Liseyda had prior rib fractures in healing, which suggests that previous abuse likely took place, according to the district attorney. The baby's sibling, a 14-month-old boy, was also present in the house at the time of her death, however, showed no signs of abuse and is in the custody of his mother.
Rabanales-Pretzantzin was previously detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers upon entering the country in 2022, but was released before traveling to Virginia and later Nassau County, Nassau County Detective Lieutenant Scott Skrynecki told the New York Post at the time of his arrest last month.