Man accused of killing baby goes to trial

TAUNTON, Mass.—A prosecutor said a 10-month-old boy may have been rammed into a closet door in an attack intended to kill him “with extreme atrocity and cruelty.“

Prosecutor Cynthia Brackett said in her opening statement at the murder trial of Manuel Antonio Lopez that he abused his girlfriend’s baby after she left the child in his care.

But defense lawyer Eduardo Masferrer said his 30-year-old client is innocent and not responsible for the 2007 death of Josiah Pacheco.

Authorities said an autopsy showed the baby had head trauma including massive bleeding in the brain. He also had bruises on his forehead, chest and abdomen.

The boy died at a hospital in Rhode Island three days after Lopez called 911 to report he had stopped breathing.