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Man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 1-year-old son

Updated July 3, 2024 - 6:58 pm

A man is accused of killing his girlfriend’s 1-year-old son, who Las Vegas police allege was shaken and beaten.

Christian Moniz Rabino, 28, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on June 25 on one count of murder and two counts of child abuse, jail records show.

Kai Tesoro, 1, died on June 6, a few days after he was allegedly abused, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.

The boy’s mother told police that her boyfriend had become frustrated with the child’s inability to walk on his own, and that he shook him and hit his legs against the floor, the report said.

While the woman told police that Rabino would yell at her son “all the time,” she said that she had never seen him physically abuse him before, the report said.

Police received a call at 4:44 p.m. on June 1 reporting that Kai was unconscious and not breathing at an address which was redacted from the arrest report provided to the Review-Journal.

The boy was then taken to Summerlin Hospital with bruising on his head and a fracture to his right leg, police said. He was sedated and placed on a ventilator.

Upon initially speaking to investigators, Rabino and the child’s mother said that the boy had had a seizure, and that his leg injury was due to him falling off the bed a couple of days before, the report said.

Doctors told police that medical tests showed the boy’s injuries were not accidental, the report said. A doctor said that it was one of the worst cases he had seen.

The boy’s biological father told police that he had previously seen injuries on the child, including bruises on his head and body, the report said.

“He was concerned about (the mother) and Christian’s relationship, and did not trust him,” police wrote in the arrest report.

A friend of Kai’s mother told police that she had heard that the boy had fallen off the bed days before his fatal injuries, the report said. The woman said the mother had expressed that she wanted to take her son to the hospital, but that Rabino convinced her not to.

The boy’s autopsy showed bruising in different stages of healing on the body, including the forehead, left ear, behind the left ear, on the rib area and knees, the report said. It also found significant brain trauma.

Rabino remained in jail without the possibility of bail, records show. He’s next slated to appear in court Aug. 7.

An attorney for Rabino could not immediately be reached for comment.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X.

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