Jesse Manuel Figueroa received 25 years to life after a jury convicted him of murder.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Santa Clara County judge sentenced Jesse Manuel Figueroa to 25 years to life in prison May 29 for killing his 8-month-old daughter, Raina, after jurors convicted the San Jose father of murder earlier this year.

The sentence closed a case that began on July 4, 2020, when Figueroa brought the unconscious baby to a Mountain View fire station and told authorities she had suddenly collapsed while he was taking her to a family barbecue. Prosecutors said medical findings, trial evidence and a restraining order told a different story. Raina died at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford after doctors spent days trying to save her.

Figueroa, 36, was caring for Raina when she suffered fatal blunt force trauma to the head, prosecutors said. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said he first told police that he noticed nothing wrong before the baby fell unconscious and blood began coming from her nose. At the hospital, a bruise developed on the left side of Raina’s face. Prosecutors described it as the clear size and shape of an adult hand. District Attorney Jeff Rosen said Raina would have been 6 years old. “These cases break our hearts,” Rosen said, calling the loss brutal and senseless.

The courtroom sentence followed a trial that focused on what happened between the time Figueroa was left alone with Raina and the moment he arrived at the fire station. Prosecutors said the injury was not a medical mystery or a sudden illness. They said it was caused by a severe blow across the baby’s face and head. An autopsy found brain hemorrhages caused by blunt force trauma and ruled the death a homicide. The medical examiner found the strike was so forceful that Raina’s brain shifted inside her skull, according to prosecutors. Figueroa’s account, that the child mysteriously collapsed on the way to a barbecue, did not match the injuries described by doctors and investigators.

The case also included evidence about violence inside the family before Raina’s death. Prosecutors said trial evidence showed Figueroa had repeatedly beaten and strangled Raina’s mother and abused the couple’s two other children, who were ages 2 and 3 at the time. Prosecutors said the abuse included forcing the children to kneel on rice. Those allegations became important because Figueroa was under a restraining order when Raina was killed. The order barred him from having unsupervised visits with the baby. Prosecutors said he persuaded Raina’s mother to let him watch the child alone so he could take her to a family gathering. What exact pressure was used in that exchange was not fully described in the public sentencing announcement.

Raina was first taken to the Mountain View fire station, where firefighters began the emergency response. She was then transported to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto. The hospital became the place where the outside mark on her face grew clearer while doctors worked to treat her internal injuries. Prosecutors said the bruise on her cheek developed during treatment and helped investigators understand what had happened before the fire station stop. The timeline placed Figueroa as the adult caring for her when the fatal injury occurred. Authorities did not publicly name Raina’s mother or the two older children.

At sentencing, the words from Raina’s family put a personal record beside the medical and legal findings. Her grandfather wrote that Raina mattered and that her life mattered. He said she was not only a name in a case file but a baby who was deeply loved and should still be alive. The statement gave the court a view of the child beyond the autopsy and the trial record. Prosecutors used the sentencing announcement to mark both the conviction and the loss. Rosen said the sentence gave some sense of justice because Figueroa would not hurt another child.

The sentence means Figueroa will serve a life term with the possibility of parole after 25 years under California law. The murder conviction came earlier in 2026 after jurors heard evidence about the child’s injuries, the father’s statements, the restraining order and prior abuse in the home. Prosecutors did not announce any additional pending charges in the public release. The case moved from emergency response to hospital care, then to autopsy, investigation, trial and sentencing over nearly six years.

Raina’s death happened on a holiday when Figueroa said he was taking her to a barbecue, a detail that prosecutors later contrasted with the violence found in the medical evidence. The fire station stop, the hospital bruise and the autopsy became the central steps in the case. By the time of sentencing, the public record identified the fatal act as a blow from her father while he was babysitting her. The judge’s sentence set the punishment at 25 years to life.

The case now stands as a completed murder prosecution in Santa Clara County Superior Court, with Figueroa sentenced and the jury verdict entered. The next milestone will come through prison intake and any later appeal or parole process available under state law.

Author note: Last updated June 29, 2026.