El Cajon

An El Cajon man convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend’s 18-month-old son was sentenced Monday to nine years in state prison.

Benjamin Chloupek, 26, was given the maximum term by San Diego Superior Court Judge William Kennedy, who also fined him $100.

A jury on Dec. 12 found Chloupek not guilty of murdering Jeffri Brown, but found him guilty of manslaughter, child abuse and inflicting corporal injury on a child.

Chloupek testified that the boy must have received his head injuries when he fell off a water bed on April 13, 1988, but medical experts told jurors the injuries probably occurred in a violent shaking or beating.

The boy was taken to a hospital and died April 20, 1988. Chloupek’s former girlfriend, Donna McLane, testified against Chloupek at the trial, saying she left her son in his care at their El Cajon apartment when she went to a video store.

McLane told jurors Chloupek at first told her at the hospital that the boy choked on something and later attributed the injuries to the fall.

McLane told Probation Department officials she was not pleased with the verdict and wished her former boyfriend could be sent to prison for life, saying he had planned the crime.