A Long Island man was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in prison for repeatedly assaulting his newborn son, causing life-threatening and long-lasting injuries to the 5-week-old’s brain, prosecutors said.
Vincent Distasi, 33, of South Setauket, pleaded guilty in June to first-degree assault for repeatedly attacking the baby boy, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
The abuse began in mid-December 2023, online court records show. On Jan. 21, 2024, the child was rushed to Stony Brook University Hospital and underwent emergency brain surgery.
The child was later found to have suffered multiple injuries, including rib fractures, fractures to both arms, and a subdural hematoma to his brain, among other acute injuries, according to doctors.
The injuries were determined to be in different stages of healing, indicating that the child “had suffered prolonged abuse,” prosecutors said
Suffolk County police arrested Distasi outside the hospital on Jan. 29, 2024. He was arraigned three months later on charges of repeatedly abusing the child.
Ring video footage taken from the family living room shows Distasi “tossing, punching, smacking and smothering the child” during the first five weeks of the baby’s life, prosecutors said.
Just before being admitted to the hospital, the child had been violently shaken by Distasi, resulting in the injuries that required the life-saving surgery.
The child, now 2, still suffers from the effects of what prosecutors called “sadistic” attacks on his infant son.
The boy struggles “to meet normal developmental milestones, unable to sit unsupported or speak,” said District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “Distasi will spend nearly two decades in prison for his abuse, and he deserves every second of that time for robbing his son of the future the child should have known.”
