A 29-year-old Indiana man, Eliasard Moneus, will spend the rest of his life in prison in connection with the brutal murder of his 3-month-old son. Moneus drowned the child in a bucket filled with laundry detergent and then attacked his wife with a tire iron.
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According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law & Crime, the incident occurred on August 10, 2024. The Lafayette Police Department responded to a domestic violence incident.
Upon arrival, officers found Moneus’ wife having suffered a fractured skull. She claimed that Moneus had attacked her with a tire iron or wrench. The man had left with their 3-month-old son. Evidence at the Lafayette, Indiana, house corroborated the woman’s claims, but Moneus was nowhere to be found.
Later in the day, Moneus was arrested and admitted to attacking his wife. However, he claimed at the time that he didn’t know where his 3-month-old was.
The following day, on August 11, investigators searched the Lafayette house. In a horrifying discovery, they found the 3-month-old, Jacob, inside an “orange bucket with a snap seal lid.”
The affidavit detailed that Jacob had died of asphyxia after ingesting a dark-colored liquid that was determined to be detergent.
Months after the incident, Eliasard Moneus pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder, the latter stemming from the attack on his wife.
‘A Lesson’
Tippecanoe County Deputy Prosecutor Elyse Madigan, while in court, stated that Moneus wanted to teach his wife, Edlie, a “lesson.”
“You can’t disrespect a man,” Madigan added, as per the Journal & Courier. “The defendant said repeatedly he didn’t care what the consequences were. He could not live without teaching Edlie a lesson, and he didn’t care if he spent the rest of his life in prison, which is exactly where he belongs.”
In court, through an interpreter, Moneus, a Haitian immigrant who only speaks French Creole, said, “This is not what I wish for my future.”
“I would like to present my apologies to all of you in the community reading and hearing about this situation,” Moneus said in his statement. “I’m living with remorse, with pain, stress that will never go away as long as I’m alive. I never thought I, Eliasard, could have been a prisoner for one day. My apology for what had happened.”
Judge Steve Meyer, however, didn’t seem too impressed with the man’s apologies.
“You killed your own child, ” Meyer told Moneus. “I can’t think of a worse crime. This is one of the most grotesque murders I have ever had to see.”
On Tuesday, July 1, Eliasard Moneus was sentenced to 92 years in prison on both murder and attempted murder charges.