by Jerry Burke
DiBella, with his lawyer Joseph Donatelli by his side, plead guilty to charges of third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
"My impression is that it wasn't intentional, but it was certainly reckless," said Nassau County District Attorney Rick Hinshaw said. "Given the nature of the incident, what occurred and what he could be charged with, the best charge that could be lodged was assault in the third degree."
DiBella is scheduled to be sentenced June 27 by Judge Lea Ruskin, who must decide whether to sentence him as an adult or as a juvenile. As an adult he could get up to a year in prison, while as a juvenile he would serve up to 6 months in a youth facility.
According to police, the 11-month-old baby boy, who faces the rest of his life with permanent disabilities, was shaken in a basement apartment in West Hempstead. The infant son of Tracilyn Novello, 22, had been left in DiBella's care as his mother went to work on April 1.
Homicide detectives say that DiBella shook the baby up to five times because he wouldn't stop crying. The shaking caused the baby's brain and left eye to begin bleeding.
While DiBella did not confess to the crime initially, police noted his cooperation with the case after initially blaming the injuries on a recent traffic accident. "DiBella made certain submissions about what had happened," said Lieutenant Commanding Officer of the Fifth Precinct Homicide Squad Dennis Farrell.
After talking with police, he was arrested the next day at Schneider Children's hospital in New Hyde Park, where the baby continues to undergo treatments for his injuries. According to a hospital spokesperson, the now one-year-old child is partly paralyzed and blind in one eye.
DiBella, who dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, met the baby's mother, Tracilyn Novello, 22, four months ago. Police say he claimed to be 21-years-old. The couple moved in together three months later.
Police say Novello normally left her son with her parents when she went to work, but that day she asked the currently unemployed DiBella to watch Anthony.
According to police reports, the baby began to cry and DiBella could not console him. He shook the baby several times in an attempt to quiet him down and then laid him down with a bottle.
Police say about two hours later, he was banging on the wall for help. The baby was limp and gasping for air. The landlord's girlfriend responded to the commotion, and called 911.
Once at the hospital, DiBella was questioned by police. He initially gave police conflicting reports, first blaming the child's condition on a minor car accident Novello had been in several weeks before. Doctors and police said that injuries the baby had suffered did not coincide with this story. Some time later, DiBella finally explained to authorities what had actually happened, and he expressed remorse for what he had done.
His attorney, Joseph Donatelli of Brooklyn, reiterated, "It's an unfortunate tragedy what happened to the baby."
