Bryan Taylor, Canyon County Prosecutor, announced today that Isaac M. Hernandez, age 26, of Nampa, was sentenced by the Honorable George A. Southworth on three counts of felony Injury to a Child.

Judge Southworth sentenced Hernandez to 7 years fixed on the first felony count, followed by 10 years indeterminate on each of the other two felony counts, for a total unified sentence of 27 years in prison.  Judge Southworth also ordered Hernandez to pay court costs for all three charges.  Hernandez agreed to plead guilty to the charges back in June as part of a Rule 11 plea agreement with prosecutors.

Hernandez was arrested on a felony warrant in July 2015 following an investigation by the Caldwell Police Department into the death of his infant son.  The investigation revealed that Hernandez had been physically abusing and neglecting the 3-month-old child over the entire span of his short life.  Medical records show the young child suffered 26 broken ribs, multiple leg fractures, a badly torn frenulum, and multiple bruises on various areas of his body.  Records also show the outright neglect by Hernandez directly led to a failure to thrive in the young infant, who only managed to gain 2.2 pounds during the three months he was alive.  Investigators were unable to determine an official cause of death.

During sentencing, Judge Southworth stated to defendant, “this is one of the saddest and worst cases of child abuse that I have ever seen in well over 30 years of practicing law.  I’ve never come across so many instances of abuse and such severe abuse of an infant.”

“The thought of a grown man treating an innocent child with such hate and neglect leaves me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach,” said Deputy Prosecutor Erica Kallin.  “Children are among the most vulnerable in our society and we have a duty to protect them.  Hopefully today’s sentence can bring some sense of justice to the family knowing that Mr. Hernandez will be behind bars for the foreseeable future.”

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