An illegal migrant was arrested after he allegedly beat his 2-month-old baby to death because he felt the baby was not his. Reports state that 20-year-old Marlon Rabanales-Pretzantzin allegedly killed his daughter, Liseyda Rabanales-Barrios, at his house in Inwood.
Long Island authorities reported on Thursday that Rabanales-Pretzantzin slapped the infant in the face, punched her in the stomach, and shook her violently on March 7. Afterwards, he allegedly threw the baby on the bed and brutally pressed his fist into her chest. The attack on the baby caused her to sustain injuries to her ribcage and a fractured vertebra in the neck, which was caused by the violent shaking she endured at the hands of her father.
Rabanales-Pretzantzin confessed to murdering the baby on Wednesday, and he was charged with murder.
The New York Post cited Nassau County Detective Lieutenant Scott Skrynecki, who said that Rabanales-Pretzantin told the police that he suspects “he is not the father so he lost affection for the baby.”
He said he is on the baby’s birth certificate as her father, but his doubts caused him to feel “some kind of animosity” towards her. The authorities said the police were called regarding a baby “rolling off the bed” around 10:40 a.m. It was revealed that the baby was murdered when a medical examiner completed the autopsy.
Rabanales-Pretzantin was subsequently questioned. Nassau County Police Detective Captain Stephen Fitzpatrick expressed in a press conference on Thursday that the incident has left the officers angry, News 12 Long Island reported.
“What he did to this kid is unthinkable. We are all quite upset about this arrest and infuriated that this individual was even in this country to begin with,” Fitzpatrick said.
Rabanales-Pretzantzin is a Guatemalan migrant, and he crossed the Mexico-El Paso border illegally in 2022. He was reportedly detained by Border Patrol and later released. He went to Virginia and then settled in Nassau County, where he was arrested for allegedly killing the infant, according to the New York Post.