ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604290062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANASSAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
A judge sentenced Christopher Pilenzo to 20 years in prison for the beating death of his girlfriend's toddler son, although his attorneys blame the child's mother for the death.
Prince William Circuit Judge Herman Whisenant Jr. suspended five years of the sentence Friday and ordered five years of probation when Pilenzo, 26, is released.
Pilenzo pleaded guilty last month to felony murder, which means he admits accidental involvement in the death. The charge carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison.
Defense attorney Blair Howard said Pilenzo was a bystander to abuse by the mother.
Twenty-month-old Kevin Zimmerman was covered with bruises and lacerations when he died, evidence of several days of escalating violence, said Mary Grace O'Brien, assistant commonwealth's attorney.
``The defendant lost his temper. When he was tired of the child's crying he repeatedly hit him,'' O'Brien said. ``Did he mean to kill him? Probably not.''
Pilenzo lived with the child's mother, Laura Zimmerman, for a few weeks before the child's death last August. The couple and her two children were living illegally in a Manassas-area warehouse when the boy died.
Zimmerman has not been charged.
``All the evidence we had pointed to Christopher Pilenzo,'' Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert said.
During the 90-minute sentencing hearing, attorneys for Pilenzo claimed Zimmerman abused her child. Two of her relatives testified they witnessed earlier abuse, including one incident in which Zimmerman allegedly knocked the child to the ground.
Some of Zimmerman's family also have accused her of failing the child by allowing Pilenzo to abuse him.
She attended the hearing Friday but did not comment to reporters.
Pilenzo, a former George Mason University student, first explained the death as an accident.
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB