ANTHONY JESY "A.J." CABRAL - 2 yo (2009) - Sanford/Seminole County FL

SANFORD – Jury selection began Monday for Jason Lenz, charged with killing his girlfriend's 2-year-old son.

Lenz, 35, is charged with felony murder and aggravated child abuse. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The child, Anthony Jesy "A.J." Cabral was found dead in his crib Jan. 25. His skull was fractured, according to his autopsy.

Authorities say he was fatally injured when Lenz was home alone with the child.

Lenz was caring for the child while the boy's mother, Elma
"Tracey" Goldrine, was at work. When she got home that night, Jan. 24,
she did not check on the child. She looked in on him the next morning
between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and found him dead in his crib.

Lenz told Seminole County deputies that he was carrying the child when he tripped and dropped the boy on a carpeted floor.

Testimony is to begin Tuesday.

A Seminole judge declared a mistrial early Saturday in the case of a man who is charged with killing his girlfriend's son.

A jury deliberated for seven hours Friday night and Saturday morning
until reporting about 3 a.m. that they were deadlocked in the case of
Jason Lenz, who had been charged with felony murder and aggravated
child abuse. Circuit judge Debra S. Nelson declared a mistrial.

Defense attorney Richard Hornsby argued that the death of Anthony Jesy
"A.J." Cabral, 2, was an accident. Lenz told Seminole deputies that he
was carrying Anthony when he tripped and dropped the boy, cracking the
boy's skull.

The boy's mother, Elma "Tracey" Goldrine, was at work when the boy was
injured. She did not check on the boy when she returned home. She found
him dead in his crib between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. the next morning, Jan.
25.

Lenz, 35, is to be tried again as early as next month. He faces a lifetime sentence in prison.

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- The mother of a boy, who prosecutors say was murdered, testified Wednesday in the retrial of her ex-boyfriend.Jason
Lenz is on trial again for allegedly killing 2-year-old AJ Cabral in
2009. His first trial ended in a hung jury, because of comments the
victim's mother made, as she testified.It was one year ago
Wednesday that Lenz and the boy’s mother last spoke to each other
outside a courtroom. Her patience for her boyfriend's changing stories
apparently ran out.Jason Lenz cried Wednesday morning as his ex- girlfriend Tracey Goldrine, the mother of the young victim, testified.Besides
his previous trial, the two haven't been face-to-face since the
videotaped encounter in a sheriff's office conference room, shortly
after Goldrine found out her child died of blunt force trauma.Lenz claimed it was a fall. “You killed him, Jason,” Goldrine said to Lenz.“I did not kill him,” she replied.“Jason, you killed him,” Goldrine said.Lenz was babysitting AJ Cabral that January 2009 night.Earlier,
jurors heard the defendant's first interview with suspicious
investigators. At that time, Lenz was still saying nothing happened as
he watched TV with AJ that evening. The boy just put himself to bed
around 6:30pm and never woke up.“He's got blood coming out of
his nose and he's dead. Do you have an explanation for that?” an
investigator said in an interview.“No,” Lenz replied.It
was later that Lenz started saying he actually tripped over a pair of
slippers as he put the boy to bed, falling on top of the child.But
prosecutors believe he actually slammed AJ into a wall, enlarging a
dent that was already there. Testimony about the dents in walls around
the home almost caused a mistrial Wednesday morning, after Goldrine
told jurors Lenz himself caused one dent when he punched the wall in an
angry rage.Normally, jurors are not supposed to hear about a
defendant's so-called ‘bad acts’ separate from the case at hand. But
the judge did not think the comment warranted yet another mistrial.In court Thursday, prosecutors will call both the medical examiner and a DNA expert to the stand.Lenz's attorney tried to get Wednesday’s retrial thrown out as well.

A verdict has been reached in the murder case against Jason Lenz.



A
jury found Lenz, 35, of Oviedo, guilty of first degree murder in the
death of his girlfriend's 2-year-old son. The jury agreed with
the prosecution that he beat C.J. Cabral to death in January of 2009 in
the home they shared. Lenz claimed it was an accident. The child died
from blunt force trauma to the head. Lenz has already been
sentenced to life in prison for the first degree murder charge and 30
years in prison for an aggravated child abuse charge. They are to run
consecutively.