New Bedford man sentenced to life for killing baby

By Benjamin Paulin, Globe Correspondent

A New Bedford man has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted Friday in Taunton Superior Court of killing a 10-month-old boy.

Manuel Antonio Lopez, 30, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Josiah Pacheco, who died at Hasbro Children’s Hospital three days after sustaining blunt trauma to his head on Aug. 11, 2007. Lopez was watching the baby while his girlfriend, the child’s mother, was at work. Lopez was not the boy’s father.

“There is nothing on this Earth that is more cruel and unjust than the intentional killing of an infant,” Bristol District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter said in a statement.

Lopez was living with the child’s mother on Deane Street, where the incident occurred. He will be eligible for parole after 15 years.