A California man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison following the tragic death of his infant daughter, whose brain suffered severe trauma. Authorities revealed that Jesse Manuel Figueroa inflicted a blow so forceful that it caused his daughter’s brain to “shift” within her skull.
The Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office announced the sentencing on May 29. Figueroa was convicted of the murder of his 8-month-old daughter, Raina, an incident that took place on July 4, 2020. According to police reports, Figueroa had intended to take Raina to a family barbecue when she unexpectedly began bleeding from her nose, collapsed, and lost consciousness.
The 36-year-old father rushed Raina to a Mountain View fire station, and she was subsequently transferred to Stanford’s Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital. During treatment, medical professionals identified a bruise on Raina’s left cheek that matched the size and shape of an adult hand, prosecutors noted.
Tragically, Raina succumbed to her injuries, marking a heartbreaking end to the young girl’s life.
She later died from her injuries.
An autopsy showed that Raina had suffered brain hemorrhages caused by blunt force trauma to the head.
According to a medical examiner, the force of the blow “was so hard it caused her brain to dislodge,” according to the release, “and move to a different part of her head.”
Figueroa was arrested in February 2021 and his trial began earlier this year.
Prosecutors argued that Raina’s death was part of a wider cycle of violence, alleging that Figueroa had beaten and strangled his girlfriend (Raina’s mother) on multiple occasions and abused their other two children by forcing them to kneel on rice.
In fact, at the time of the murder, Figueroa was subject to a restraining order that barred unsupervised visits with Raina.
“He forced Raina’s mother to drop Raina off at his house the night before a barbecue,” Santa Clara Deputy District Attorney Michael Gadeberg told ABC 7. “Raina spent the night with him and then sometime the following morning, Figueroa lost his temper and Raina lost her life.”
In a victim’s impact statement, Raina’s grandfather urged the court to remember that “Raina mattered.”
“She was not just a name in a case file,” he wrote. “She was a baby who was deeply loved and who should still be here today.”