Gideon Omondi talks briefly with one of his defense attorneys, Mark Brown after being sentenced Friday for murder in the drowning death of his four year old son, Richie, in 2006. MIGUEL VASCONCELLOS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SANTA ANA – A 36-year-old college engineering student from Kenya who killed his 4-year-old son in 2006 by holding him under water for three to five minutes in a Fullerton apartment was sentenced to 25-years to life in prison today.
Gideon Omondi, 36, who was convicted of first-degree murder last year for the Sept. 10, 2006 drowning death of his son Richie, had no visible display of emotion as Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg handed down the maximum allowable term.
Froeberg also gave Omondi a second life term on an attempted murder conviction for dousing himself and his sonwith gasoline in preparation for lighting them both on fire in January 2006.
Omondi was embroiled in a bitter custody dispute over Richard with his estranged wife, Hellen, when he decided to drown his son rather than lose custody.
In a tearful victim-impact statement prior to sentencing, Hellen Omondi said she was heart-broken over the loss of her son. “The pain I will take to my grave,” she said. “I will never forgive him.”
Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy argued that Omondi planned the killing because he felt he would lose custody of Richie. He said Gideon Omondi demonstrated that he knew what he was doing was wrong because he immediately drove to the Fullerton police station and confessed
Fullerton officers went to the apartment Omondi shared with his brother and found the boy’s body tucked in his father’s bed.
Deputy Public Defender Mark Brown argued during a sanity phase that Omondi, a graduate student in engineering at Cal State Fullerton, was legally insane with a major depressive mental disorder and did not understand the act was morally wrong.
A psychiatrist hired by the defense testified that Omondi was suicidal and angry and paranoid about the family law system was out to get him in the custody dispute. But court-appointed psychologist testified that Omondi knew what he was doing and that he understood it was legally and morally wrong.
His jury deliberated for about three hours before finding that Omondi was legally sane at the time
Source: OC Register
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