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JOSEPH GAZZAM:Father sentenced for infant daughter's death
Updated: Jul 31, 2019 - 1:29 PM
MT. LEBANON - A Mount Lebanon man, convicted of third-degree murder in the death of his 4-month-old daughter was sentenced Wednesday.
Joseph Gazzam, 31, was sentenced to 21 to 42 years in prison followed by eight years of probation for the death of his infant daughter Victoria in November 2017.
[...]
Pittsburgh-Area Man Setenced For Beating Infant Daughter To Death
Jul 31, 2019 1:23 pm ET
PITTSBURGH, PA - Joseph Gazzam will spend 21-t0-42 years in prison for beating his four-month old daughter to death when she wouldn't stop crying after he changed her diaper. Gazzam, 31, of Mt. Lebanon, was sentenced Wednesday following his conviction last month on third-degree murder charges in connection with Victoria Gazzam's death.
Gazzam also was sentenced to eight years of probation.
[...]
Judge sends Mt. Lebanon man to prison for 21-42 years for killing infant daughter
JUL 31, 2019 12:49 PM
Calling the fatal beating of a 4-month-old girl “the most disturbing case” he’d ever had, an Allegheny County Common Pleas Court judge on Wednesday ordered the infant’s father to serve 21 to 42 years in prison for killing her.
Joseph Gazzam, 31, of Mt. Lebanon, pleaded guilty in April to criminal homicide, and following a degree-of-guilt hearing in June before Judge Randal B. Todd, was found guilty of third-degree murder in Victoria Gazzam’s death.
Victoria’s mother, Kayla Walter, told Judge Todd she hoped Gazzam rotted in prison.
[...]
The defendant’s mother, Diane Gazzam, told Judge Todd that she and her husband adopted Joseph and his brother out of foster care when he was 6 years old. Before that, she said, the biological parents abused the boys and abandoned them.
“I often wondered if too much damage had been done before we adopted them,” she said.
Mrs. Gazzam said her son was never violent; rather he was docile, easily influenced and often trusted people he shouldn’t.
“I have no idea what happened to my granddaughter on the day she died,” she said. “But I know in my heart he did not do this intentionally. He adored his daughter.”
[...]
But defense attorney Chalon Young told Judge Todd her client did express sincere remorse and regret. Victoria’s death, she said, was “an act motivated by a lack of impulse control.”
That, she said, dated back to when Gazzam was just 5 years old and hospitalized at Western Psychiatric Hospital and Clinic.
She asked Judge Todd to give Gazzam a lighter sentence, given his background and mental health history.
But the judge responded that he was not sympathetic to the defendant, despite an abusive, dysfunctional childhood.
“If the baby was crying, all you had to do was walk downstairs and ask for help,” Judge Todd said.
Updated: Jul 31, 2019 - 1:29 PM
MT. LEBANON - A Mount Lebanon man, convicted of third-degree murder in the death of his 4-month-old daughter was sentenced Wednesday.
Joseph Gazzam, 31, was sentenced to 21 to 42 years in prison followed by eight years of probation for the death of his infant daughter Victoria in November 2017.
[...]
Pittsburgh-Area Man Setenced For Beating Infant Daughter To Death
Jul 31, 2019 1:23 pm ET
PITTSBURGH, PA - Joseph Gazzam will spend 21-t0-42 years in prison for beating his four-month old daughter to death when she wouldn't stop crying after he changed her diaper. Gazzam, 31, of Mt. Lebanon, was sentenced Wednesday following his conviction last month on third-degree murder charges in connection with Victoria Gazzam's death.
Gazzam also was sentenced to eight years of probation.
[...]
Judge sends Mt. Lebanon man to prison for 21-42 years for killing infant daughter
JUL 31, 2019 12:49 PM
Calling the fatal beating of a 4-month-old girl “the most disturbing case” he’d ever had, an Allegheny County Common Pleas Court judge on Wednesday ordered the infant’s father to serve 21 to 42 years in prison for killing her.
Joseph Gazzam, 31, of Mt. Lebanon, pleaded guilty in April to criminal homicide, and following a degree-of-guilt hearing in June before Judge Randal B. Todd, was found guilty of third-degree murder in Victoria Gazzam’s death.
Victoria’s mother, Kayla Walter, told Judge Todd she hoped Gazzam rotted in prison.
[...]
The defendant’s mother, Diane Gazzam, told Judge Todd that she and her husband adopted Joseph and his brother out of foster care when he was 6 years old. Before that, she said, the biological parents abused the boys and abandoned them.
“I often wondered if too much damage had been done before we adopted them,” she said.
Mrs. Gazzam said her son was never violent; rather he was docile, easily influenced and often trusted people he shouldn’t.
“I have no idea what happened to my granddaughter on the day she died,” she said. “But I know in my heart he did not do this intentionally. He adored his daughter.”
[...]
But defense attorney Chalon Young told Judge Todd her client did express sincere remorse and regret. Victoria’s death, she said, was “an act motivated by a lack of impulse control.”
That, she said, dated back to when Gazzam was just 5 years old and hospitalized at Western Psychiatric Hospital and Clinic.
She asked Judge Todd to give Gazzam a lighter sentence, given his background and mental health history.
But the judge responded that he was not sympathetic to the defendant, despite an abusive, dysfunctional childhood.
“If the baby was crying, all you had to do was walk downstairs and ask for help,” Judge Todd said.