UPDATE: Tucson man who beat 2-year-old boy sentenced to 20 years
A Tucson man has been convicted of child abuse after causing brain damage to a 2-year-old boy in 2015, officials say.
Peter Schmidtfranz was dating the boy's mother for around three weeks when the boy was injured, according to a Facebook post by the Pima County Attorney's Office this morning.
Schmidtfranz was "initially loving towards the boy but quickly became verbally abusive," the post said.
In November 2015, Schmidtfranz was alone in a room with the boy, when the boy's mother heard a loud noise. She went into the room and found her son crying. Schmidtfranz reportedly told her that her being in the room was making things worse, so she left, the post said.
When the mother later entered the room, she found the boy unresponsive and called 911. Before Schmidtfranz left, he told her not to tell anyone he was in the home, the post said.
The county attorney's office said that the boy sustained injuries consistent with abusive head trauma. The boy is now expected to function at 60 percent of a full-functioning individual.
On Thursday, a jury convicted Schmidtfranz of child abuse under circumstances likely to cause death or serious physical injury. The sentencing is scheduled for August of this year, the post said.
