A 29-year-old man in Indiana is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison for drowning his 3-month-old child, placing the newborn in a “bucket of laundry detergent” before sealing the lid and leaving the boy to die.
Tippecanoe Superior Court Judge Steve Meyer sentenced Eliasard Moneus to 92 years in a state prison on Tuesday for the brutal death of young Jacob Moneus, prosecutors confirmed to Law&Crime.
In May, Moneus pleaded guilty to one count of murder and one count of attempted murder, the latter charge stemming from attacking his wife with a tire iron after killing his son, according to court records.
He was sentenced to 62 years for murder and 30 years for attempted murder, with the sentences to be served consecutively, or one after the other.
During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors described the horrific circumstances surrounding the murder to the judge.
“It doesn’t really get worse than this,” Tippecanoe County Deputy Prosecutor Elyse Madigan stated, according to the Journal & Courier.
“A father placed his 3-month-old son face down in a bucket of laundry detergent, sealed the lid, and left him to die before going to the next room and viciously attacking the baby’s mother.” Jacob drowned in the bucket, swallowing 100 ml of detergent while dying.”
According to Madigan, Moneus was motivated to kill the newborn because he wanted to teach his wife “a lesson” about disrespecting men.
“The defendant wanted to teach Edlie and women a lesson,” the prosecutor stated, addressing the defendant’s wife by name. “You cannot disrespect a man.
The defendant stated repeatedly that he did not care what the consequences were. He couldn’t live without teaching Edlie a lesson, and he didn’t mind spending the rest of his life in prison, where he belonged.
Moneus apologized for the pain he had caused through an interpreter — the defendant does not speak English, only French Creole, according to the report — but the words had little impact on the judge, who also lambasted the convicted child killer.
“You killed your own child,” Meyer is said to have said. “I cannot think of a worse crime. This is one of the most horrific murders I have ever witnessed. The idea of putting a 3-month-old upside down in a bucket of laundry detergent is unthinkable.”
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, officers from the Lafayette Police Department responded to a hospital around noon on August 10, 2024, for a domestic violence incident involving Moneus’ spouse.
The wife, who suffered a fractured skull, told police that her husband of nearly a year beat her with a tire iron or wrench before fleeing with their three-month-old son.
Authorities responded to the home and discovered blood spatter and other evidence of an assault, but they were unable to locate Jacob.
Moneus was found and arrested the next day. In an interview with detectives, he admitted to attacking and hitting his wife several times, but claimed to be unaware of his son’s whereabouts.
On August 11, 2024, investigators conducted another search of the home and found Jacob “in an orange bucket with a snap seal lid.”
“The orange bucket had the lid attached to the bucket and was located next to the trash can in the kitchen,” according to the attestation. “When the lid was removed from the orange bucket, a young male infant believed to be [Jacob] was discovered dead in a dark-colored liquid inside.
A subsequent autopsy determined that the boy died as a result of asphyxia caused by immersion in the detergent.
