Phila. Father Sentenced For Killing Infant Son With Heroin in Baby Bottle
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Frankford man was sentenced today to up to 40 years in prison for killing his son by giving him drugs in a baby bottle at bedtime.
Defendant Orlando Rosado, 46, blames his own drug abuse and mental illness, and now faces at least 15 years in prison.
Prosecutor Lorraine Donnelly says the tiny victim, just two days shy of his first birthday, died of drug intoxication after the father put heroin and methadone -- a drug used to treat heroin addiction -- in the child's bottle.
Donnelly says she does not believe Rosado intended to kill his son, Christopher.
"I do believe he put those substances in the baby's bottle, in his warped mind, to calm the baby. The baby was a fussy baby, and in his mind it was like Benadryl."
The judge agreed, telling Rosado she doesn't think he knows what he did that night. But she also told the defendant he killed the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, and flatly rejected Rosado's claim that he too is a victim because he lost his son.
