Death penalty off the table in toddler's death

A Carpentersville man will not face the death penalty when he stands trial Monday in the death of his girlfriend's 2-year-old son, Kane County prosecutors said Thursday.

Andres Velazquez, 29, is accused of tossing the toddler, Ernest LaFleur, across a bedroom in December 2005, causing fatal head injuries and several broken bones.

Velazquez is set to stand a bench trial on a pair of first-degree murder offenses before Judge Timothy Sheldon. Prosecutors had sought a lethal injection for Velazquez, in part because of Ernest's age and the nature of the injuries.

But that penalty was taken off the table Thursday after "an exhaustive review of the case," prosecutor Bill Engerman said.

Velazquez was baby-sitting Ernest and his sister in the apartment on the 100 block of Woodland Court, when he threw the boy roughly 9 feet across a bedroom, investigators have said.

He tossed the child again -- this time about 11 feet -- onto an air mattress, fracturing Ernest's skull, breaking his collarbone and causing other injuries, investigators said.

Ernest was initially taken to Sherman Hospital in Elgin and transferred to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he died on Jan. 6, 2006.

David Kliment, the Kane County public defender, said Velazquez was pleased with the death penalty being dropped, a move not expected to alter the course of the trial.

He still faces natural life in prison if convicted.

Velazquez was arrested the day after Ernest died and is jailed on $2 million bond. Velazquez maintains he and the boy had been playing and the child's injuries were an accident, Kliment said.

At the time he was charged, Velazquez, who had lived in Berwyn and Cicero, was on probation for a forgery conviction, court records show.