Thirty-year-old Zachary Tricoche punched two-year-old Jamil Baskerville, Jr. in the stomach and the head when the toddler awoke to find Tricoche attacking his mom. Baskerville, Jr. died of internal bleeding.
By Matt Skoufalos | June 8, 2022
Zachary Tricoche, seen here at his arraignment August 23, 2016. Credit: Michael Bryant.
A 30-year-old Pennsauken man who fatally beat his partner’s two-year-old child during a domestic dispute was sentenced to 16 years in New Jersey state prison for the crime on Tuesday.
According to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office (CCPO) Zachary Tricoche pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter for recklessly causing the death of two-year-old Jamil Baskerville, Jr. in 2016.
The incident occurred on August 20, 2016, when Baskerville, Jr. awoke to a domestic disturbance between Tricoche and his mother.
During proceedings, Camden County Assistant Prosecutor Christine Shah told the court that Tricoche told the toddler to “put his hands up,” before punching him to death, implying that the child should “assume a boxing stance and prepare to fight a grown man,” Shah said.
Tricoche reportedly punched the toddler in the stomach with such ferocity that the boy hit the wall behind him. At two years and eight months, Baskerville, Jr. weighed just 29 pounds and was only three feet tall.
Tricoche then allegedly hit Baskerville, Jr. twice in the head, rendering him unconscious after his head struck the wall a second time, Shah said.
The child sustained multiple contusions to his chest and head, and “devastating” crush and laceration injuries to his liver, she said. He was pronounced dead at 12:08 a.m. on August 21, 2016. The cause of his death was determined to have been internal bleeding.
File photo: Friends and family hold a vigil for Jamil Baskerville, Jr. in Pennsauken in 2016. Credit: Matt Skoufalos.
In a 2016 interview, Baskerville, Jr.’s family remembered the boy as sweet and loving. His family thanked investigators for their work as they rallied to grieve his loss.
Jamire Baskerville, the boy’s uncle, said then that the child “didn’t deserve the way he went out.”
“He should have had somebody to protect him,” Baskerville said.
Tricoche pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter on November 18, 2021; he was sentenced by Camden County Superior Court Judge Edward J. McBride, Jr. on June 7, 2022.
Tricoche must serve 85 percent of his sentence in New Jersey state prison before he is eligible for parole.
