University City father pleads guilty to abuse in death of newborn

A San Diego man who inflicted fatal injuries on his 7-week-old daughter has pleaded guilty to felony child abuse and is slated to be sentenced next month to 10 years in state prison.

Jaime Santillanes, 39, was previously charged with murder and assault in the death of Genevieve Santillanes, who died at a hospital three days after police were called to the family’s University City home.

Officers responded on the night of March 18, 2023, for a report of a baby who had stopped breathing. Santillanes was arrested following an investigation in which the San Diego Police Department consulted with “medical personnel who have specialized in training in child-abuse related injuries to determine exactly what occurred,” Lt. Steve Shebloski said.

The child abuse count Santillanes pleaded guilty to on Tuesday indicates the child’s injuries occurred “under circumstances or conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death.” He also admitted to an allegation that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on a child under 5 years old.

At a preliminary hearing in San Diego Superior Court held last year, Sgt. Mark Sullivan testified that Santillanes told police he was sitting on a couch and holding the child while feeding her. He said that at some point he fell asleep while still holding the child and woke up after falling to the ground, with his entire body weight falling onto the baby, Sullivan testified.

Dr. Mallory McPhee, a pediatrician who helps conduct assessments at Rady Children’s Hospital of possible child abuse cases, testified that she examined the child’s injuries. McPhee said the explanation Santillanes provided was inconsistent with the injuries the child sustained, which included multiple skull fractures.

The doctor said she could not opine on how exactly the baby sustained her injuries, but testified that due to the severity of the injuries, “I would have expected something extremely traumatic to have occurred … like a fall from several stories, a very significant car accident, some sort of incident that had extreme forces present.”

Defense attorney Brian Watkins disagreed with McPhee’s conclusion and argued it was a leap to find the injuries were sustained in a non-accidental manner. Watkins noted the doctor’s concession that she didn’t know how exactly the injuries occurred.

Deputy District Attorney Erin Casey argued that child abuse cases rarely have witnesses who can shed light on how exactly such injuries are inflicted, but the doctor’s expertise informed her opinion that Santillanes’ explanation was “implausible.”