Life in Prison for Homewood Man Who Stabbed 3-Year-Old Son to Death

Caption: Jaivon Sandifer, 3, and his father, Gregory D. Sandifer

A Homewood man who stabbed to death his 3-year-old son in a West Side Chicago apartment was sentenced to life in prison plus 25 years on Friday.

The boy’s mother — who was raped, stabbed and thrown out of a window by Gregory D. Sandifer moments before the child was killed — testified at the father’s sentencing.

“I constantly play the events in my mind wondering what were my son’s final thoughts while being murdered by his father who he thought would love, protect and cherish him,” the mother told the judge, according to a Sun-Times Media report.

The boy — whose favorite superhero was Iron Man — was stabbed 10 times in his neck, chest and arms. The brutal crime took place on Sept. 2, 2011. In June, Sandifer, 29, was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated domestic battery, aggravated unlawful restraint and attempted murder.

Sandifer argued with the boy’s mother, and when she wanted to leave the Austin apartment, he grabbed a carving knife, forced her into a bedroom and sexually assaulted her.

The mother was hit with a television and stabbed four times, according to prosecutors, but she was able to grab the knife and threw it out of a window. Sandifer then pushed the woman out the window.

“There wasn’t any part of her body that wasn’t covered with blood. She was practically naked,” a neighbor told the Chicago Tribune at the time. “She kept asking (police) to go get (her) baby. ‘He’s gonna kill my baby.’”

Meanwhile, Sandifer grabbed another kitchen knife and stabbed his son to death. As police made their way into the apartment, Sandifer jumped from a second-story porch and tried to hide in a garage.

When police found Sandifer in the garage, he was drinking a beer.