BRENTWOOD, N.H. — A Lawrence man pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge that he hit his 2-year-old son inside a Salem restaurant. He will serve one year in jail.
Willy Cordero, 23, agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of simple assault, a plea deal that came with a recommended sentence of 12 months in the Rockingham County House of Corrections.
Cordero appeared before Judge John Lewis yesterday morning in Rockingham County Superior Court, where he formally entered his plea and Lewis sentenced him to the term recommended.
A teary-eyed Cordero was escorted from the courtroom by bailiffs to begin his sentence.
Cordero punched and slapped the 2-year-old at the Weathervane in Salem in June 2008, according to prosecutors. Witnesses at the restaurant said they saw Cordero slap the child because he would not stop crying, according to court documents filed by county prosecutors.
The boy suffered a swollen eye and lacerations to his face, police said.
Cordero originally faced a single count of second-degree assault.
Previously filed court documents showed that if Cordero had gone to trial, county prosecutors planned to seek a 10- to 30-year sentence.
