Man Charged with Killing 4-Year-Old Pleads Not Guilty

Jonathan Ortiz, 19, who's accused of beating a 4-year-old boy to death last year, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment yesterday.

According to Assistant Prosecutor Mark Ali, director of the Child Abuse Unit, the defendant was at his parents’ Vose Avenue home babysitting his girlfriend’s son, Jayden Hayes, on April 2, 2008. The next morning, his parents awoke to find the child unresponsive and called 911. When South Orange police arrived, the unconscious child was taken to St. Barnabas, where he was pronounced dead.

An autopsy by the medical examiner’s office ruled the death a homicide and cited blunt force trauma to the abdomen as the cause of death. Ortiz was placed under arrest on April 10. He's charged with first-degree aggravated manslaughter and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

Ortiz remains free on $150,000 bail. He was represented in court by defense attorney Paul Bergrin, and Essex County Superior Court Judge Peter Vasquez scheduled a pre-disposition conference—where discovery materials are turned over to the defense—for April 27.

First-degree aggravated manslaughter carries a 10- to 30-year sentence.