Kenneth Hughes didn't have any money last September to buy his wife a birthday gift. So he offered to watch their 2-month-old son while his wife went shopping.

        He changed the boy's diaper, gave him a bath, dressed him and put him into his crib.

        And at some point, prosecutors say, Mr. Hughes punched the child hard enough to kill him.

        “He cries a lot, and I couldn't take the crying,” Mr. Hughes later told police in a taped statement. “I punched him hard. Back of the head.”

        Prosecutors read Mr. Hughes' statement Tuesday as they began presenting their case to jurors in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

        Mr. Hughes, 27, is charged with aggravated murder and will face a death sentence if he is convicted.

        Assistant Prosecutor David Prem said the West End man struck his son, Joshua, while bathing the boy Sept. 23 last year. He said the brutality of the blow shows Mr. Hughes intended to kill his son.

        “His purpose was to silence that young voice, to kill him,” Mr. Prem said.

        Mr. Hughes' intent is crucial because jurors must find he meant to kill the boy to convict Mr. Hughes of aggravated murder. Mr. Hughes' attorney, Elizabeth Agar, said her client hit the child but never meant to kill him.

        She said Mr. Hughes had struggled as a parent since his son's birth. She said he recently overcame drug and alcohol problems but was still learning to control his temper.

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