Metro

Judge sentences Queens baby shaker to 18 yrs. in prison

A Queens judge ripped into a father who shook his baby son to death, calling his crime “monstrous” and then sentencing him to 18 years in prison.

“You should have been a father to him,” Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter scolded Saul Cortez.

Cortez, 25, of Arverne, was left alone for 20 minutes with his eight-month-old son, Mario Patrice, on April 5, 2010 when he became frustrated and angry with the baby’s crying and repeatedly shook and punched the infant in the back, according to a criminal complaint.

The child’s mother, Monica Patrice, refused to attend the sentencing because of her, “fear and anxiety” over losing her child at the hands of his father. But in a statement submitted to the court, she said she wishes he could get the “electric chair.”

“This monstrous crime was committed by his own father,” the judge said as he continued to scold Cortez, who listened through an interpreter and clenched a bible behind his back.

He pleaded guilty last month to the manslaughter and assault of his son. He faces deportation to Mexico upon completion of his sentence.

“This baby will never live up to his potential because his father couldn’t control himself … this is a shame,” the judge said.

Baby Mario succumbed to his injured after he was hospitalized with lacerations to the liver, injuries to his eyes, fractured ribs, brain injury and subsequently diagnosed with Shaken Baby Syndrome.

As a condition to his plea, Cortez will participate in an educational video on the affects of Shaken Baby Syndrome.