A four-year-old boy is helping investigators piece together the final days of his six-year-old brother, who was beaten to death by their parents after a short life of savage abuse.
Giovanni ‘Chulo’ Jennings was routinely beaten, shot with a BB gun and even stapled to the wall of his trailer in Madison Heights, Michigan, before the fatal attack that ruptured his intestine.
Mother Elaina Jennings, 25, and her boyfriend Daniel Giacchina, 32, entertained themselves with surveillance video of the toddler trying to escape from the barricaded playpen where he slept on a 3-foot-by-11-inch wooden board.
The couple attempted to blame Chulo’s biological father for his death, but the surviving son told police what happened in the hours after Giachinna’s final, fatal attack.
“Chulo was dead all day and Danny was there,” the four-year-old explained.
Stepfather Daniel Giacchina, 32, shot six-year-old Giovanni “Chulo” Jenkins with a BB gun and hit him multiple times, prosecutors say, before fatally attacking him.
Giachinna’s mother, Elaina Jennings, 25, is alleged to have encouraged his attacks on her son.
Oakland County District Attorney Karen McDonald described the couple’s treatment of their son as “horrible.”
“An autopsy revealed Chulo had bruises and lacerations all over his body, including his scalp, temples, lips, inner mouth, cheeks, forehead, chin, shoulders, forearms, fingers, thumbs, back, buttocks, inner thighs, knees and shins,” he said at a news conference.
‘Chulo was beaten by Giacchina on multiple occasions,’ he added.
‘While such abuse sometimes occurred while Jennings was at work, Jennings was aware of and condoned the physical assaults and at times even encouraged Giacchina to abuse Chulo.’
The couple had installed a home security system to monitor what they called “the corner” where Chulo was confined.
They put up a black curtain to prevent Chulo from seeing the light of day and the couple watched videos of the little boy trying to urinate, drink or free himself.
Days before his death, the boy had his head wedged into a corner of the playpen before being stapled to the wall with his clothes by his stepfather as punishment for “looking out the window of the playpen area,” McDonald said.
Giacchina then allegedly texted Jennings to say she had “resolved the issue” and added a photo of her son hanging on the wall.
An autopsy concluded Chulo had died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen and a perforated intestine “after a long period of confinement and abuse,” prosecutors said.
“My office is committed to using every available resource to seek a punishment that reflects the horror of his death,” said Oakland County District Attorney Karen McDonald.
Jennings told police that Giacchina had punched Chulo multiple times in the stomach about three days before he died.
She said Chulo began vomiting and his condition began to deteriorate, but it wasn’t until he stopped breathing that she called 911 at 2:35 p.m. on July 30.
Police searched the home she shared with Giachinna and her two other children and discovered a staple gun, a BB gun, a 9mm ghost pistol and bullet holes in the walls, McDonald said.
Photographs in the home showed children playing with a gun as Giacchina watched two children point the gun at a third child.
The four-year-old boy told investigators that Giacchina had previously shot him and his older brother with the BB gun.
“He told them, ‘Danny shot him in the leg with a BB gun,’ and showed him the wound,” Madison Heights Police Chief Brent LeMerise told reporters.
“He told the interviewer: ‘Danny shot Chulo in the buttocks.'”
First responders rushed Chulo to the nearest emergency room and he was then transferred to Children’s Hospital of Michigan’s Stilson Specialty Center, where he died at midnight on July 31.
An autopsy concluded she died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen and a perforated intestine “after a long period of confinement and abuse,” McDonald said.
“He was seriously injured, but he was not taken for medical treatment because his mother knew a medical examination would reveal the abuse.”
Jennings and Giachinna have each been charged with one count each of first-degree murder, child abuse and lying to a police officer.
An autopsy revealed bruises and lacerations all over her body, including her scalp, temples, lips, inner mouth, cheeks, forehead, chin, shoulders, forearms, fingers, thumbs, back, buttocks, inner thighs, knees and shins.
The toddler was confined to a barricaded pen where he slept on a three-foot-by-11-inch wooden board in the mobile home in Madison Heights, Michigan.
Giacchina is also charged with being a felon in unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
“Every child has the right to grow up in a home free from fear,” McDonald said.
‘This boy and his siblings suffered unimaginable abuse and lived in fear every day.
‘My office and the Madison Heights Police Department are committed to using all available resources to achieve justice for Chulo and hold those responsible for this death accountable, and to seek a punishment that reflects the horror of his death.’
The couple was denied bail and are being held in the Oakland County Jail awaiting a probable cause conference on Aug. 21 in 43rd District Court.