The man convicted in the death of 5-year-old Eain Brooks was sentenced to 50 years-to-life in prison in State Supreme Court Tuesday morning.
Matthew Kuzdzal, 27, was found guilty in September of second-degree murder and predatory sexual assault in the death of 5-year-old Eain Brooks. During the sentencing hearing, Kuzdzal said he takes full responsibility for his actions that resulted in the death of Brooks, but would not take responsibility for sexually assaulting the young boy.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of what happened on the tragic day of September 15, 2013. I wish that I could do something to change it, but I can’t. There’s nothing I can say or do to change what happened that day. If I could trade my life for Eain’s, I would in a heartbeat,” said Kuzdzal.
During the trial, Kuzdzal admitted to becoming angry with Eain while watching him in September of 2013 and acknowledged slapping the boy and shoving him toward the shower, causing a head injury. Eain died two days later. Kuzdzal also admitted to using heroin on the day Eain was injured.
Eain Brooks’ mother Nora did not speak during the sentencing, though she was visibly upset. Brooks’ paternal great-grandmother Carolyn Spring said Kuzdzal’s statement to the court was “offensive.” She said she wanted to “slap him” when she heard it.
“I will never get to see his first dance. I will not be able to see him walk down the aisle and get married, or graduate, or any of those things. It’s been taken away from us,” said Spring. “I’ve been arguing with God daily over this. I do forgive Matthew himself, but I will never forgive what he did, nor will I ever forget it.”
Defense Attorney Robert Cutting says he is not surprised by the sentence, but he maintains Brooks' death was a tragic accident and not murder.
“I think that our client’s testimony during the course of the trial substantiates that. The worst case scenario, in the eyes of the law, it should be considered manslaughter, not a murder. We’ll appeal it and we’ll see what the appellate courts think of that,” said Cutting.
Erie County District Attorney Homicide Chief James Bargnesi contends that throughout the trial Kuzdzal cared only about himself, initially lying to investigators about what happened.
“You see a lot of things on this job. This is as bad as it gets. This was a 5-year-old who was brutalized by the adult that was supposed to take care of him. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. It’s horrific,” said Bargnesi.
Eain’s death has helped ramp up reform within Erie County Child Protective Services. Spring says she has created Eain’s Echo, an organization to create awareness about child abuse and abuse prevention. She says the organization is also circling apetition for Erie County to adopt a proven three-fold safety policy to prevent child abuse, neglect and murder.