Father gets 25 years in son’s strangulation death
A man who initially confessed to strangling his infant son to death in San Antonio in 2016, then recanted, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Arjunkumar Dipak Rana was set to go to trial Nov. 5 on a charge of capital murder–child under 10, in the death of his 2-month-old son, Alexander.
But just as the jury was to be selected, Rana changed his mind and agreed to plead no contest to the lesser offense of murder in exchange for a sentence of not more than 40 years in prison.
State District Judge Catherine Torres-Stahl sentenced Rana on Dec. 10 to 25 years in prison.
According to reports, first responders went to the 3200 block of Northwest Loop 410 on March 24, 2016, on a call for an unresponsive baby. Alexander Rana was taken to Methodist Children’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Officers responded again to the Rana residence about a week later for a disturbance there after the child’s father allegedly confessed to a 911 dispatcher that he had killed his son. Rana was arrested a few weeks later after the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office found the infant died from asphyxia by neck compression and ruled the boy’s death a homicide.
An arrest affidavit released at the time stated that the morning the boy died, Rana was angry at his wife because he had to go to work that day and his wife would not get up to soothe the child. He told them he had recently gone through a layoff, and he and his wife were struggling financially.
According to the document, Rana told investigators he took his son into a bathroom at the home he shared with his wife, placed his thumbs over the child’s neck and tilted the boy’s head forward to cut off his breathing.
Rana said the boy struggled slightly, became still, and Rana said he listened to his chest to make sure he wasn’t breathing.
In the weeks after his arrest, Rana attempted to retract his confession to an Express-News reporter. Rana said he lied because he wanted to receive the death penalty because he felt he no longer had a reason to live.
Rana, who had no prior criminal record, faced either death or life in prison without the possibility of parole if he had been convicted of capital murder.
Court records indicate Rana, 22, is currently at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center awaiting transport to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to begin serving his term.
He will have to serve at least half of his sentence before he would be eligible for parole.