Penalty for Fatally Beating Child Increased

Legislation named in memory of a 3-year-old Newport Beach boy was signed by the governor Friday, increasing the penalty for fatally beating a child under age 8.

The legislation changes the penalty from 15 years to life in prison to 25 years to life.

The law, sponsored by Assemblyman Steve Kuykendell (R-Long Beach), will be known as the Tyler Jaeger Act, in memory of a boy who was beaten to death by his mother’s boyfriend in 1994.

“I hope this law will help prevent those who are supposed to care for and love our children from brutalizing them,” Wilson said in a statement. “We should never have to endure another tragedy like the one that took the life of young Tyler Jaeger.”

In 1995, Newport Beach resident Brian Laudenback, then 33, was convicted of second-degree murder for Tyler’s death. The child suffered broken bones and internal injuries so severe that they were compared to those caused by car crashes.

Laudenback, a house painter who was between jobs, was baby-sitting Tyler, who was home from day care with a contagious eye illness. In the first week, Tyler was taken to the hospital with a skull fracture, which Laudenback said was caused by a fall from a picnic table. A week later, the child was brought to the hospital dead. He had broken ribs, cuts to the face and head, and severe injuries to the liver and pancreas.

After her son’s death, the child’s mother, Karey Jaeger, became an advocate of tougher sentencing for those guilty of fatal child abuse.

There are 110 to 120 incidents of fatal child abuse each year in California, according to the Department of Health Services.