Did stepdad killed the baby?
Mathew Tisell said he loved 10-month-old Zayden and his elder brother, Xavier, and saw them as his own children.
“I didn’t kill Zayden. No, I didn’t. I loved that kid,” Mr Tisell told the Supreme Court, sitting at Bendigo.
“I loved those boys to death. I still do. I’ve done everything I could for those boys.” Harley Hicks, 21, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of the infant and to three counts of theft and aggravated burglary.
The Bendigo man is alleged to have entered the home in Eaglehawk Rd, Long Gully, in the early hours of June 15, 2012, and beaten Zayden to death, striking his head 25 times with a homemade baton.
Mr Tisell said he was woken by partner Casey Veal telling him they had been robbed, that the doors were open and their wallets were missing.
He said he was in the toilet when he heard Ms Veal screaming.
When he met her in the in the hallway she was holding her lifeless son in her arms.
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