June 3 (UPI) — A man who threw a 5-year-old boy from a third-floor balcony in Minnesota’s Mall of America was sentenced to nearly two decades in prison on Monday.
Judge Jeannice Reding sentenced Emmanuel Aranda, 24, to 19 years in prison, the maximum amount agreed upon in his plea deal after he pleaded guilty to throwing the young boy, Landen, from the mall’s balcony.
Aranda denied Reding’s offer to issue a statement to Hennepin County District Court on Monday.
The boy survived the fall, but fractured his arms and legs, and experienced severe head trauma. His parents said he still has a “long road ahead” to recovery after experiencing non-life-threatening complications from surgery.
Landen’s father condemned Aranda’s actions as “evil and selfish” in an impact statement read aloud in court.
“You chose to listen to the worst part of yourself that day,” he wrote.
The boy’s mother said she would allow God to judge Aranda for his actions and would not think of him beyond the end of the case.
“We will live our lives to the fullest filled with joy and fun and you chose to waste your life. We wish you could experience the pain and suffering that you inflicted on my boy,” she wrote.
A criminal complaint stated that Aranda entered the mall with plans to kill someone because he was angry that the women in the mall rejected his attempts to talk to them. He planned to push an adult over the balcony, but ultimately chose the boy.
Aranda’s mother, Becky Aranda, said she didn’t believe the sentencing took her son’s mental health into account after he refused to sign a consent form for the release of medical records from Chicago related to his mental health.
“I don’t think justice was done,” she said.
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