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Man Charged With Murder for Fatally Beating Girlfriend's 3-Year-Old Son: DA

By Aidan Gardiner | February 10, 2017 2:46pm
 Jaden Jordan, 3, was in the hospital in a coma with a fractured skull after being abused by his mother's boyfriend, Salvatore Lucchesse, officials said.
Jaden Jordan, 3, was in the hospital in a coma with a fractured skull after being abused by his mother's boyfriend, Salvatore Lucchesse, officials said.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg; Facebook (inset)

BROOKLYN — The man previously charged with assault in the fatal beating of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son was indicted for murder Friday, more than two months after the boy was found bloodied and covered in feces at his Gravesend home, prosecutors said. 

Salvatore Lucchesse, 24, who initially told investigators that Jaden had fallen in the shower of his mom's West Fifth Street apartment on Nov. 28, was indicted in Brooklyn Supreme Court and faces life in prison if convicted, prosecutors said Friday.

"Jaden Jordan was a helpless, defenseless child who the defendant was supposed to be caring for. Instead, he inexplicably beat him so severely that the little boy died," said Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

"We are determined to see that he is held responsible for this senseless and very tragic loss."

Lucchesse had called 911, and emergency responders found Jaden unconscious, bleeding and lying in his own excrement, officials said.

Investigators doubted Lucchesse's story when doctors at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center revealed Jaden's lacerated liver was probably caused by a punch to the gut, officials said.

They also said his brain damage was caused by suffocation, strangulation or shaking, officials said.

Jaden's death was officially ruled a homicide last week, the Medical Examiner's office said.

Lucchesse has been charged with murder, manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said.

He's being held without bail and is due back in court on March 6, officials said.