Inset, from top to bottom: Elaina Rose Jennings (Oakland County District Attorney), Giovanni “Chulo” Jennings (WDIV) and Daniel John Giacchina (Oakland County District Attorney). Background: The RV in which the couple allegedly beat Chulo to death (WDIV).
A 25-year-old mother and her 32-year-old boyfriend in Michigan have been arrested on charges of torturing and killing their six-year-old son. Her son was held captive in a pen, pinned to the wall and repeatedly shot with a pellet gun, among other things.
Elaina Rose Jennings and Daniel John Giacchina were taken into custody last week and each charged with first-degree murder, child abuse and lying to a police officer in connection with the gruesome killing of young Giovanni “Chulo” Jennings, authorities said.
Giacchina is also charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
According to a news release from the Oakland County District Attorney’s Office, officers from the Madison Heights Police Department and paramedics responded to the family’s home in the Ackels trailer park on Dequindre Road at around 2:34 p.m. on July 30 after Jennings called 911 to report that her 6-year-old son was not breathing. The park is about 13 miles north of Detroit.
When they arrived, rescue workers found young Chulo. They described the victim as “unresponsive” and with “multiple injuries.” Paramedics took the child to Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital for treatment.
Due to his serious condition, Chulo was subsequently transferred to the Stilson Specialty Center at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, where he died on July 31.
Authorities said Chulo was “severely abused” and beaten “regularly” by both Jennings and Giacchina. They further alleged that Jennings and Giacchina conspired to create a false story for police by claiming another person was with Chulo when he suffered his fatal injuries, “when in reality the victim was left in the care of the defendant Giacchina.”
Oakland County District Attorney Karen McDonald said the circumstances of Chulo’s death were the worst her office had ever heard.
“After spending hundreds of hours carefully reviewing the evidence in this case, what we found can only be described as horrific,” she said in a statement. “Chulo was locked up, beaten and tied to the wall with a stapler. He was seriously injured but was not given medical attention because his mother knew a medical examination would reveal the abuse.”
In a press conference announcing the charges, McDonald said the couple tied Chulo up and forced him to sleep on a wooden slat in the pen that was three feet long and 11 inches wide. He was also allegedly beaten regularly and had abrasions, cuts and bruises from his head to his shins, including on his fingers.
“Photographs taken during the autopsy in Wayne County showed that Chulo had bruises and cuts all over his body,” McDonald said.
Chulo’s manner of death was ruled a homicide, and the cause of death was blunt force trauma to his abdomen and a perforated intestine “after a long period of captivity and mistreatment,” she continued.
McDonald said investigators also discovered a wealth of incriminating material on the couple’s electronic devices, including videos showing the victim being shot with an air rifle and taped to the wall with a stapler.
“Both Jennings and Giacchina laughed at the photo and Giacchina’s use of the stapler to – quote – ‘solve the problem,'” McDonald said.
The couple is being held without bail and is scheduled to appear in court again on August 21, 2024.
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