A 6-year-old Michigan boy died after being stapled to a wall and shot with a BB gun — part of “horrific” abuse by his mother and her boyfriend often in front of their other kids, according to authorities.
Mom Elaina Rose Jennings, 25, and her boyfriend Daniel John Giacchina, 32, were charged with murder after little Giovanny “Chulo” Jennings was found unconscious with injuries all over his body on July 30, WDIV reported.
Investigators soon learned that Giovanny was confined to a pen and left to sleep on a wooden slat in his mom’s bedroom in their mobile home in Madison Heights, where the helpless boy was routinely beaten by the adults in front of the youngster’s two younger siblings, according to prosecutors.
“As we carefully sifted through the evidence, what we found can only be described as horrific,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.
“Chulo was beaten by Giacchina on multiple occasions,” McDonald said.
“While that abuse sometimes happened while Jennings was at work, Jennings was aware of it and approved of the physical assaults, and, at times, even encouraged Giacchina to abuse Chulo.”
A black curtain and barricades were installed on the pen — to keep Giovanny inside — as well as a security camera for Giacchina and Jennings to monitor what the mom called “misbehaving,” including him trying to urinate, drink or leave the corner, prosecutors said.
Giacchina then stapled Giovanny’s clothes to the wall to keep him confined in a corner with his face wedged into the corner of the wall, and even sent Jennings a photo to laugh about it, prosecutors said.
“Both Jennings and Giacchina laughed about the photo and Giacchina’s use of the staple gun to solve ‘the problem,’” McDonald said
The boy “was being punished” in this manner” just for “looking out the window in the pen area,” McDonald said.
Police were finally called to the home on July 30 and the boy died at a local hospital the next day. An autopsy showed injuries across his body, including to his scalp, temples, lips, inner mouth, cheeks, forehead, chin, shoulder, forearms, fingers, thumbs, back, buttocks, inner thighs, knees and shins, McDonald said.
“It was clear from the evidence that we saw that there was a pattern of abuse that led to Chulo’s death,” McDonald said of the murder charges.
A staple gun, a BB gun and CO2 cartridges were among items seized from the home.
Police said they also found a 9mm semi-automatic ghost gun and over 100 rounds of 9mm ammunition — as well as photos of the children posing and pretending to shoot the gun, according to WDIV.
Jennings and Giacchina face life in prison if convicted.
