John Jefferson
Inset: Jonathon Matthew Cheek (Macomb County Jail). Background: The home where Cheek’s toddler starved to death (WJBK).
A 26-year-old man in Michigan will spend decades behind bars for killing his 2-year-old son last year, starving the boy to death inside the home they shared with the child’s mother. Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Edward Servitto on Wednesday ordered Jonathan Matthew Cheek to serve a sentence of 24 to 50 years in a state correctional facility in connection with the toddler’s horrific death, authorities announced.
Cheek in October reached a deal with prosecutors in which he agreed to plead no contest to one count of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree child abuse. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to recommend a maximum five-decade sentence for Cheek, who had been facing the possibility of life in prison.
Servitto also sentenced Cheek to up to 10 years on the child abuse charge, to be served concurrent with the murder sentence, meaning at the same time. Cheek was given credit for 643 days of time served.
“This is a heartbreaking and profoundly sad case,” Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido said in a statement following the sentencing hearing. “A two-year-old child, full of potential and deserving of love and care, was failed in the most devastating way. No sentence can bring back this innocent life, but hopefully the family can begin to heal.”
The victim’s mother, 28-year-old Sierra Pearl Zaitona, is facing the same pair of charges as Cheek. Her trial is currently scheduled to begin on April 1, 2025.
Sierra Pearl Zaitona (Macomb County Jail).
As previously reported by Law&Crime, Cheek and Zaitona on Thursday, March 16, 2023, called 911 and reported finding their toddler son dead in his crib. A subsequent autopsy performed by the Office of the Medical Examiner determined that the victim’s cause of death was starvation, prosecutors said.
During legal proceedings following the parents’ arrests, prosecutors said the victim was the biological son of Cheek and Zaitona and that he was in good health before being placed back in their custody.
“For the record, the child was healthy in foster care, and once it got into the care of these two individuals, it met its demise,” Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Molly Zappitell said at an arraignment, the Macomb Daily reported.
It is unclear why the child was previously in foster care or when he was returned to Zaitona and Cheek.
When seeking to have the couple held on high bonds, prosecutors argued that Zaitona was a flight risk and said that she intentionally gave birth to the child in Ohio “to avoid alerting CPS.”
Zaitona is currently scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial hearing on March 17, 2025.
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