http://cbs2.com/local/local_story_166141843.html
(CBS) RIVERSIDE, Calif. A 20-year-old man convicted of killing a 3-year-old Rubidoux boy was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in state prison.
Richard Daniel Cox was convicted March 7 of first-degree murder and grievous assault on Michael "Mikey" Vallejo-Sieber, who died as a result of what prosecutors described as repeated torture.
Judge Robert Spitzer sentenced Cox just on the grievous assault conviction, which carried the same maximum sentence as the one for murder.
"I'm pleased the defendant received what he deserved for this horrible crime," ***uty District Attorney Stephen Gallon said. "The evidence showed he participated in the torture, the physical abuse and the murder of a 3-year-old boy."
Cox blamed the boy's death entirely on his then-friend and landlord, Alex Kermith Mendoza, 28, a rap artist who is facing capital murder charges in the same case.
According to trial testimony, Mendoza was dating Mikey's mother, Pam Sieber, in the summer of 2005 and babysitting on the nights when Sieber worked at a Riverside topless bar.
Testimony indicated Cox was renting a room in Mendoza's Rubidoux home.
Gallon said Mikey was left with Mendoza and Cox on at least six occasions, up to and including the day the child was hospitalized and placed on life support in August 2005.
During Cox's trial, Gallon portrayed the then-18-year-old as a willing participant in experiments on Mikey that included giving the child dog food and beer. According to Gallon, when Mendoza would punch, kick and torment the toddler, Cox was there in the house, either taking part or looking the other way.
An autopsy determined that before he died, Mikey suffered a lacerated liver and pancreas, hemorrhaged diaphragm and kidneys, fractured skull, broken ribs and burn marks on the genitals and anus.
Doctors testified that trauma to the toddler's rectum indicated he had been sodomized as well.
Cox's former defense attorney, John Aquilina, argued during trial that his client was an immature young man incapable of responding to the abuse he saw inflicted on Mikey.
Aquilina said Cox would often retreat and seek refuge in his bedroom when Mendoza beat the 3-year-old.
"Ricky was more afraid for himself than for Mikey," the attorney told jurors.
Trial testimony showed Cox initially told investigators that he and Mendoza stuck together and he was "there for Alex." But according to detectives, he began to change his story under questioning and admitted there was abuse in the home.
One sheriff's detective testified Cox would only admit to accidentally pushing the child and giving him dog food.
Mikey's mother pleaded guilty last year to child endangerment charges and is serving a six-year sentence.
