Suburban Kansas City man sentenced to 15 years for trying to drown infant daughter
A Greenwood man has pleaded guilty to felony child abuse after he was arrested three years ago for trying to drown his infant daughter in an icy pond.
Jonathon Stephen Zicarelli, 29, was convicted Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court upon his guilty plea to one of two felonies he was initially charged with. He was sentenced to 15 years in state prison.
The case against Zicarelli opened after he walked into the Greenwood’s police station in December 2018 and coolly told officers he had drowned his infant daughter. He told police they could find her in a pond on the west side of the small town, roughly 20 miles southeast of Kansas City and home to roughly 5,000 residents.
Police quickly rushed to the area where Zicarelli said she was left. Responding officers, including then-Police Chief Greg Hallgrimson, found her unconscious body floating face-up in the water.
The child, 6 months old at the time, was rushed to the shoreline, where her wet clothes were removed and she was wrapped in the police chief’s shirt. CPR was performed until paramedics arrived. She was taken to a hospital and treated for severe hypothermia.
The infant was in the water for roughly 10 minutes, investigators would later determine, before she was rescued. One police lieutenant chalked up the event as a “miracle” in an interview with The Star at the time.
During an interview with police, Zicarelli said he had planned to kill his daughter for more than a day after having “bad thoughts,” according to charging documents. He told police he wanted to make things easier for his wife, saying he was stressed by the holidays and trying to provide for his family, according to court records.
His attorneys would later say Zicarelli was experiencing mental health issues.
The events that day would also lead to an excessive force investigation against Hallgrimson, the police chief who helped save the child. Hallgrimson pleaded guilty in federal court last month to beating Zicarelli while he was handcuffed in the police station.
Hallgrimson was put on administrative leave by Greenwood’s Board of Aldermen shortly after the assault accusations came to light. He resigned in May 2019.
