Man sentenced to 8 years in prison in boy's beating
A Douglas County man convicted of standing by as his girlfriend beat her 3-year-old son was sentenced to 8 years in prison Monday.
Chad Eugene Pierre-Louis, who prosecutors accused of joining Suzie Elie as she nearly beat her child to death, was convicted July 18 of second-degree child cruelty. He was found not guilty of aggravated assault, battery and first-degree child cruelty.
Douglas County Superior Court Judge David T. Emerson also sentenced Pierre-Louis, 25, to serve two years' probation when his prison sentence is completed, said Andrew Agan, spokesman for the Douglas County District Attorney's Office.
During his trial, Pierre-Louis called himself a peaceful man and said that he did not harm Elie's son.
But the jury held him responsible for doing nothing to stop the November 2011 beating. That month, Pierre-Louis joined Elie as she took her crying child to a wooded area near Ashton Court and violently beat him, kicking him and striking him with a tree limb. Elie pleaded guilty to beating the child and was sentenced on July 16 to 20 years in prison.
"A 3-year-old little boy woke up and he cried," Assistant District Attorney Rachel Ackley said during the sentencing hearing for Elie. "And for that, he received one of the worst beatings I've ever seen."
During the beating, Ackley said, a jogger came by, saw what has happening and interrupted them.
According to the prosecution, Pierre-Louis responding by looking at the jogger and saying, "Mind your own business."
By the time the beating ended, Ackley said, the child was covered "covered head to toe in lacerations."
Staff writers Joel Provano, Edward Mitchell and David Ibata contributed to this article.
