A Gwinnett County man has been convicted of a violent attack on his 8-year-old stepson that included holding the boy’s nose under a running faucet, a district attorney’s office release said.
Jose Claros, 32, was convicted of first-degree and third-degree cruelty to children, battery and family violence battery on April 17 after a one-day trial.
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On Aug. 2, 2015, around 1:30 a.m., the 8-year-old victim woke up and could not get back to sleep. He walked downstairs, saw Claros and immediately began crying, the DA’s office said. Claros began beating the child with a sandal, hitting him on the face, arms and legs, according to the DA’s office.
Claros hit the child so hard that the child’s nose began to bleed and a sandal print was visible on his face the next day, according to the DA’s office. When the child’s mother, eight months pregnant at the time, tried to pull the child away, Claros picked the child up and put his head in a sink. The man held the child’s nose under running water until the child’s mother was able to stop him, the release said.
The mother, her son and a daughter, who was not injured, waited outside the home until Claros left. The mother called 911 the next day after moving the children to her brother’s house.
At trial, the mother claimed she had lied to police and that her son’s nose began spontaneously bleeding before officers arrived to collect evidence. The mother said the sandal print on her son’s face was from a bike accident, according to the release.
A jury returned a “quick” verdict of guilty on all four charges, the DA’s office said. Judge R. Timothy Hamil called the mother’s testimony “unbelievable” and sentenced Claros to 15 years, with five to serve in prison.
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