A Gardnerville man was sentenced to up to 12 years in prison Tuesday for striking his infant son.
Alex Seeber told Judge Dave Gamble that he hoped to hold his son again one day.
"I know I messed up," the 19-year-old said. "All I want to be is a father figure. I'd do anything just to hold him and see him smile. I want to put all this behind me and show everyone I'm not a bad person, I just messed up."
Gamble sentenced Seeber to 57-144 months in Nevada State Prison on one count of child abuse or neglect causing substantial bodily harm.
Seeber's attorney Tod Young sought a continuance of the hearing to further evaluate his client's mental state, but Seeber overrode him.
In sentencing Seeber, Gamble said the defendant responded to stress with violence.
Gamble said he had never read a psychological evaluation quite as negative as the report on Seeber.
"There are very strong statements not just about this event, but about you as a danger to the community," he said.
"I don't have any hope at all that you'll have any relationship with this child because you don't deserve it," Gamble said.
"Your response to this stress (of crying) against a tiny infant you're supposed to love, to protect, to parent, was so violent we could easily be sitting here in a homicide setting," the judge said.
Seeber faced up to 20 years after pleading guilty to the charge.
Seeber's 6-month-old son was taken by helicopter to Renown Regional Medical Center on March 9 after Seeber allegedly slapped the baby because he was crying.
The infant underwent emergency neurosurgery to remove a 7-mm blood clot on his brain.
He suffered seizures and a stroke following the incident.
Officials said at a hearing in March that the child displayed injuries associated with shaken baby syndrome including broken ribs and retinal hemorrhaging. In April, the child's grandmother said he and his 17-year-old mother moved to Las Vegas where they were living with the baby's great-grandmother.
The baby is now 10 months old, and according to deputy district attorney Tom Gregory, "doing fairly well."
"There are a lot of unknowns down the road," Gregory said.
The prosecutor said he gave Seeber credit for two actions.
"He told somebody else in the house what he did. That may very well have saved the child's life," Gregory said.
Seeber also accepted an agreement to plead guilty to the most serious charge he faced, avoiding a trial.
"But that's about it," Gregory said. "I've always perceived Mr. Seeber as a danger to the community to the people he's around. His conduct goes way beyond where you have a young adult without parenting skills. That's a total cop-out."
He said Seeber had been prosecuted as a juvenile for battery on a school official trying to break up a fight.
Young said he counseled Seeber to ask for a continuance to prepare an independent psychological evaluation.
After Seeber was questioned by Gamble, the defendant asked for the sentencing Tuesday.
"If I had two reports to consider, it might impact how I sentence you," Gamble said.
Seeber said he understood and wished to proceed without delay.
Young said he felt the report didn't reflect "the Alex I know."
"It says he shows no remorse, but he's expressed to me concern for his child and real regret. There's an element in him that can't accept how seriously he hurt his child," Young said.
"He's positive about his son's future. Not in terms of, 'they ought to let me go,' but in terms of hope, of a real positive attitude that his child will be OK."
Young said Seeber and the child's mother planned to conceive the baby.
"At first I was somewhat aghast at the notion of this planned child. They were children themselves having a child. In Alex's heart and mind he really wanted that idea that he could be a dad. That he could do for his child what he never got," Young said.
Young said the injury to the baby was not premeditated.
"You have a young man really unprepared in every fashion to be a parent," Young said. "It's no excuse but it helps explain some of how we ended up here today. It was not an evil design. It was the frustration of the inability to be a parent."
