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Brownsville Dad Gets 10 Years in Prison for Torturing 3-Year-Old Son

By Trevor Kapp | May 23, 2017 3:19pm
 A Brownsville dad was sentenced to 10 years in prison for repeatedly beating his young son.
A Brownsville dad was sentenced to 10 years in prison for repeatedly beating his young son.
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BROOKLYN — A Brownsville dad was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for torturing his 3-year-old son — scalding him with hot water and making him kneel on Legos for hours at a time, prosecutors said.

Leonardo DeCouite, 24, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault earlier this month on charges that he also beat the boy with a wire, cord and belt over a six-month stretch beginning in September 2015.

“This horrific violence against a helpless child by his own father is disturbing and completely unimaginable,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.

“Instead of caring for him, this defendant subjected his innocent little boy to repeated assaults.”

DeCouite was also sentenced to five years’ post-release supervision.

The boy’s mom, Kiana Mohansingh, 21, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and was sentenced last week to six months in jail. She confessed that she hit him in the face with a plastic toy, causing bruising and swelling, prosecutors said.

She and DeCouite were arrested after the boy's grandmother noticed bruising on the boy and called police.

Their son now has limited use of his hand, the Brooklyn DA’s Office said.