Former Marine gets 7-year sentence in son's death

By Jose Luis Jimenez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

12:20 p.m. August 28, 2007

VISTA – A former Camp Pendleton Marine was sentenced to seven years in prison Tuesday after admitting he put his 7-month-old son in a situation that led to his death.

Jared Terrasas, 26, of Oceanside, was originally charged with murder, but pleaded guilty in June to a felony charge of child endangerment as part of a plea deal with the prosecution.

On Oct. 4, 2005, the unconscious boy was hospitalized at the Marine base with injuries to his kidneys and abdomen. He was transferred to Rady Children's Hospital, where he succumbed to a brain injury Oct. 7.

Terrasas, who denied abusing the boy, was later discharged from the Marines and the couple moved to Clovis, where they were arrested December 2005.

In January when a judge dismissed the murder charge against the mother, Lucia Terrasas, after ruling there was not enough evidence for her case to proceed to trial.
Jose Jimenez: (760) 737-7568; jose.jimenez@uniontrib.com

Ellie