South Pasadena Father Set To Be Sentenced Wednesday in Infant Son’s Death

A South Pasadena man convicted in the death of his 7-week-old son faces sentencing Wednesday, February 26, after jurors deadlocked 11-1 on a murder charge but found him guilty of assault on a child causing death.

Christopher Lashun Richmond, 31, is scheduled to appear at 8:30 a.m. in Department F of the Pasadena Courthouse, where he faces 26 years to life in state prison.

The jury deliberated nine hours on October 7, 2024, before convicting Richmond of assault on a child causing death and injuring the child’s parent. They deadlocked 11-1 in favor of guilt on the murder charge and acquitted him of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury.

Prosecutors said Richmond was the sole caregiver on September 25, 2022, when he allegedly deprived his infant son Cash of oxygen, leading to cardiac arrest.

Emergency responders found the baby unconscious and not breathing. The child was airlifted to UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

After four months on life support, Cash was pronounced dead on February 17, 2023, at age six months and 15 days. An autopsy revealed he died of “multiple blunt traumatic injuries,” and his death was ruled a homicide.

Doctors at Mattel Children’s Hospital reportedly found evidence of broken ribs from two prior incidents, along with a broken leg and cervical fracture that prosecutors described as “shaken to the point of breaking his neck.”

Richmond allegedly refused to enter his son’s hospital room.

911 dispatcher Patricia Velasco testified, “It’s the one call that I still carry with me. Everything from start to finish it was just an odd call… Speaking to the father, he was so calm.”

This contrasted with the “hysterical” state of the baby’s mother, Candice Blauuw, according to Firefighter/Paramedic John Papadakis. Richmond reportedly initially claimed he waited 15-20 minutes before calling 911, later revising his estimate to 5 minutes during a February 2023 custody hearing.

Richmond was previously convicted of domestic battery with injury involving Blauuw in April 2022, when prosecutors say he pushed her to the ground during her pregnancy. He was acquitted of a separate August 2021 assault charge against her.

Defense attorney Michael Hawkins portrayed Richmond as a happy first-time father, challenging prosecutors’ characterization of him as a “callous, murderous monster.”

Hawkins argued Richmond’s calm demeanor was his typical response to stress, saying he “shuts down” in such circumstances.

The case, prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Complex Child Abuse Section, was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau and South Pasadena Police Department. Prosecutors will decide after sentencing whether to seek a retrial on the deadlocked murder charge.