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A Buena Park man was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison for suffocating his live-in girlfriend’s 18-month-old son with a bedsheet.

Cheyenne Mateo Fuimaono, 24, was convicted May 5 of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death.

Fuimaono, then 21, was watching his live-in girlfriend’s son, Malik Perez, while she was attending nursing classes on the day the boy died, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy.

The defendant’s mother, Ruth Fuimaono, told Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue that her son “has always been a gentle, kind, loving person” and offered “condolences” to Malik’s family.

“We all loved Malik,” she said. “We all suffered with this — both sides.”

Donahue replied, “This was a sad case for everybody. It really is.”

The judge noted the child was “particularly vulnerable” and the “defendant was in a position of trust.”

He said Fuimaono feels “remorse” for Malik’s death, but only believes he should do time behind bars for “negligence.”

The defendant’s attorney argued at trial that the child’s death was an accident.

Before sentencing, Fuimaono asked Donahue to remove his attorney, Rick Vallejo, from the case so he could represent himself, but the judge denied the request.

Police were called to the couple’s residence at 6822 San Benito Way about 1:25 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2012, and after some “pounding on the door,” the defendant opened it, McGreevy said.

Fuimaono told police conflicting versions of what happened, McGreevy said. Initially, the defendant said he went to make lunch for himself and Malik, who was “resting peacefully,” and was away from the child for a couple of minutes before he returned and saw the toddler in distress, the prosecutor said.

The first officer on scene, Ron Catanzariti worked to revive the child until paramedics arrived and took him to Western Medical Center in Anaheim, where physicians managed to get the boy to show some signs of life, McGreevy said. The toddler was transferred to Children’s Hospital of Orange County, where he was declared brain dead.

The defendant told investigators he believed the boy was “spoiled” because he was “fussy … and cries a lot,” the prosecutor said. Fuimaono also told investigators he had anger management issues for which he “self- medicated” with marijuana until about a week before Malik died, McGreevy said.

The defendant objected to the boy’s crying because it interrupted his recreational time, according to the prosecutor. At times, the defendant would put his hand over Malik’s mouth to try to stop his crying, which inhibited the boy’s breathing to the point of the child “seizing up,” McGreevy said.

Once, while holding his hand over the boy’s mouth, the toddler bit the defendant, prompting Fuimaono to “pop him in the chin,” McGreevy said.

Four days before the child’s death, he accidentally scratched the defendant in the ear while sleeping in bed with his mother and Fuimaono, McGreevy said. In return, the defendant bit the child in the right arm, but claimed the child got the bite mark while at a Chuck E Cheese restaurant, McGreevy said.

Malik was “a healthy baby with healthy organs,” according to McGreevy, who said the cause of death was suffocation that occurred when the defendant wrapped the boy up in a bed sheet.

After the defendant “mummified” the child, he could see Malik “struggling,” but turned his back on him anyway and went to the kitchen, McGreevy said.

—City News Service

Buena Park man sentenced to 25 years to life for killing girlfriend’s son was last modified: by

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