What authorities call 'horrific' child abuse, the way a six-year-old boy died is chilling

The six-year-old boy nicknamed “Chulo” –  Spanish slang for “dear one” – lived a short life being anything but loved.

Inside a Madison Heights mobile home, the child was repeatedly beaten, confined within a tent in one corner, sometimes held to a wall with staples through his clothes, and shot with a BB gun before dying at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend, authorities said.

On Friday, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald stood grimly with Madison Heights police Chief Brent LeMerise to announce charges of murder and first-degree child abuse against Elaina Rose Jennings, 25, and Daniel Giacchina, 32, in the death of her son, Giovanni “Chulo” Jennings. Both a week earlier had been had been charged with lying to a peace officer, and Giachini faced several charges for being a felon possessing a firearm and ammunition.

But that was before investigators finishing spending hundreds of hours sifting through evidence since July 30, when police were called to couple's mobile home on a Tuesday at about 2:30 p.m. Jennings told a 911 operator only that her son had stopped breathing, police said. But that became the first time that medical staff saw the boy's injuries, “because his mother knew that a medical examination would reveal the abuse," McDonald said.

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When questioned by police, Jennings and her live-in partner, Giacchina, “conspired to falsely tell police that it was another individual who was last with the child, when in fact the victim was left in the care of defendant Giacchina,” McDonald said. The child died the next day at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, prompting an autopsy that became reams of chilling evidence against Jennings and Giacchina. McDonald praised the investigation by Madison Heights police.

“Together, we will continue to seek justice for Chulo,” she said.

Jennings and Giacchina were arraigned in Madison Heights’ 43rd District Court and were being held without bond in the Oakland County Jail. Each faces up to life in prison for both the murder charge and the charge of first-degree child abuse. In addition, Giacchina could be sentenced for felonies stemming from his possession of a firearm and ammunition. And both could be found guilty of lying to a police officer, a high misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison and as much as a $5,000 fine.

Contact Bill Laytner: blaitner@freepress.com.