19–YEAR-OLD BRONX MAN CONVICTED IN THE BEATING DEATH OF
FOUR-YEAR-OLD

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 19-year-old man was found guilty of beating his girlfriend’s four-year-old son to death. The jury reached the verdict after three hours of deliberations, following a month of testimony which included the four-year- old victim’s 10-year-old sister and details of the child’s brutal death in January 2006.

Jose Calderon was acquitted of murder but found guilty of Manslaughter in the 2nd degree in the death of four-year-old Quachaun Brown. Calderon is facing a maximum sentence of up to 15 years imprisonment when he appears before State Supreme Court Justice Dennis Boyle on Thursday, November 1, 2007 in Part T 4.

Calderon, according to court papers, repeatedly beat Quachaun Brown in the head and body “by using his fists, a belt, a plastic bat, and by striking his head against a wall” during the course of several assaults that occurred between January 27, 2006 and January 30, 2006. The homicide occurred at the apartment he shared with the boy’s mother, Aleisha Smith, on Kossuth Avenue one month after his fourth birthday. Smith, pled guilty to one count of Manslaughter in the 2nd degree and admitted to “recklessly causing the death” of her son when she failed to obtain prompt medical attention for him. She is currently serving a sentence of 2 ½ to 7 ½ years imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Senior Investigative Assistant District Attorney Astrid Borgstedt and Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Gamils of the Child Abuse / Sex Crimes Bureau.