Despite mother’s plea, man sent to prison in death of son

A 27-year-old Las Vegas father was sentenced to between 10 and 30 years in prison Tuesday in the death of his toddler son, despite a plea from the boy’s mother to keep her husband out of prison.

Jonathan Quisano, who moved to the valley from Hawaii shortly before his son died, pleaded guilty in June to voluntary manslaughter and child abuse neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm.

Quisano faced murder charges in June 2013 after his 3-year-old son, Khayden Quisano, died at University Medical Center.

Khayden had been hospitalized after his mother called police to say the child had fallen in a northwest Las Vegas home while under Quisano’s care.

The father told police Khayden fell while playing on the back of a sofa, but authorities said the boy suffered head and internal injuries too severe to have been caused by a fall.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Staudaher said Khayden suffered “very violent” and “very significant” injuries.

At a sentencing hearing Tuesday, Quisano’s wife, Christina Rodrigues, called him a “kind, loving, caring, responsible father.”

She asked District Judge Valerie Adair to offer Quisano a chance at probation, saying she never witnessed Quisano abuse the boy.

“I not only lost one, but two very special people who I love dearly,” Rodrigues said. “Just don’t take him away forever.”

Staudaher said the death wasn’t the first time Quisano had been suspected of abusing Khayden. In 2010, while the family lived in Hawaii, doctors became concerned after noticing fractures on Khayden’s ribs and legs, Staudaher said.

Social workers in Hawaii kept track of Quisano for two years before the family moved to Las Vegas, Staudaher told the judge.

About two years before that, another of Quisano’s children suffered from sudden infant death syndrome at 3 months old, according to the prosecutor.

Deputy Public Defender Nancy Lemcke also argued for probation. A coroner had ruled the manner of Khayden’s death undetermined, she said.

“Not for one single secondary moment did he intend to hurt or certainly kill his own child,” Lemcke said. “If you believe that he inflicted these injuries, it’s an issue of succumbing to a single momentary lapse of patience. … Certainly if nothing else, everybody here agrees that what happened was not some preconceived plan on the part of Mr. Quisano, it wasn’t part of some systemic ongoing torture or abuse.”

Quisano told the judge he was “sorry” and would “do anything possible to get my life back on track.”

In handing down the sentence, Adair pointed to the allegations of previous abuse.

That investigation “if nothing else, put this defendant on notice as to what he should do,” Adair said. “If anything, he should have been more careful with this child than he was.”

The judge gave Quisano credit for 488 days served in the Clark County Detention Center, meaning he would first be eligible for parole in less than nine years.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker.