Defenseless Toddler's Life Ended in 'Mortal Kombat' with His Babysitter

X’Zavion Charleston spent three years on this earth before Thomas Albea took all the rest of his days from the defenseless child. Albea will spend a 11 years in prison for every year of X’Zavion’s short life.

Albea, 22, was sentenced Friday by a Lake County judge for the September 2011 murder of the little boy. The toddler’s family says that isn’t nearly enough time behind bars.

Albea was babysitting his girlfriend’s child. He told police he was cooking the boy’s dinner — at 11 o’clock at night — as the child played a video game. The game? Mortal Kombat.

When little X’Zavion’s character died in the video game, the boy let out a curse — “(Expletive), he got me.”

And for that, Albea punished the little one by punching him the stomach. The Cook County medical examiner, upon autopsy, found that the damage to the boy’s internal organs was “catastrophic.” Emergency surgery conducted at Children’s Memorial Hospital the day after the beating couldn’t save the boy. At first, Albea lied to his girlfriend, telling her that X’Zavion fell. Then Albea told police he struck the boy only once.

Eventually, the Waukegan man confessed to hitting him repeatedly.

Mortal Kombat, with a 3 year old.

“You don’t punch a 3-year-old in the stomach, and you don’t punch a 3-year-old in the stomach again and again and again,” prosecutor Eric Kalata said earlier this year as he argued for the stiffest possible punishment. “X’Zavion had a right to live his life. He had a right to laugh and play.

“He had a right to see his fourth birthday.”

Albea was found guilty in March and could have received 60 years behind bars. Given the age of the victim, state law permitted a punishment of life in prison at the judge’s discretion.

That’s what prosecutors wanted.

But Judge Mark Levitt did not agree with the state’s recommendation that the “brutal and heinous” nature of the toddler’s death warranted such a sentence. With credit for time served in the county lockup, Albea will be released when he turns 50, after which he’ll serve three years on parole. He’s not eligible to receive credit for “good behavior” while in prison.

X’Zavion’s mother, Q’chelle Charleston, fled the courtroom in tears upon hearing the sentence, according to the Chicago Tribune.

“I’m outraged he got 33 years,” X’Zavion’s aunt, Sheena Adams, told Tribune reporter Jim Newton. “My nephew was 3 years old. He will never see school or drive a car.”

Your Turn: Did the killer deserve more time behind bars? Discuss the sentence in the comments.