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Inset: Jacob Kubai (Polk County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Kubai at his first appearance in Polk County, Florida (WESH/YouTube).
A man from Florida is going to prison for fatally attacking his 4-month-old daughter, resulting in 10 broken ribs, a skull fracture, and spinal hemorrhaging.
Jacob Kubai, 23, received a 30-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to aggravated manslaughter of a child, according to the State Attorney’s Office, 10th Judicial Circuit, via a press release. At the time, Kubai was responsible for his daughter’s care while his wife worked two jobs.
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According to prior reports by Law&Crime, Bartow police responded at around 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 22, 2024, to a call from Bartow Regional Medical Center about a child in cardiac arrest. The child, named Willow Kubai, affectionately called “Strawberry” by those who knew her, was airlifted to a hospital in Tampa, where she passed away two days later.
Detectives with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office later learned that Kubai rushed the girl to the hospital after finding her unresponsive. The father told investigators that he and the girl dropped off his wife, Willow’s mom, at work at around 5 p.m., Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference following the arrest.
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Kubai said he played video games for a while and later went to Walmart at around 6:40 p.m. to pick up some items for dinner and returned. He claimed he fed the baby at 7:50 p.m. and checked on her every 10 minutes until 8:10 p.m., when he said he found his daughter suddenly unresponsive.
Kubai said he administered CPR and then took the infant to the hospital.
When detectives reviewed the security cameras at Walmart, they saw he was there without the baby. Judd said investigators determined he beat Willow before leaving for the grocery store.
An autopsy revealed Willow’s horrific injuries: a skull fracture, multiple bruises to her forehead, 10 fractured ribs, hemorrhaging to her spine and multiple layers of brain bleed, Judd said. Investigators believe she suffered the broken ribs when Kubai squeezed her. Kubai also hit Willow in the forehead 10 times and used a hard object to strike her in the back of the head.
“The baby was literally beaten to death,” Judd said.
While Kubai initially cooperated with cops, he later changed his tune.
“He started saying ‘none of this is real,”” Judd said. “‘My wife’s not real. My baby’s not real. This is a fantasy. This just didn’t happen.’ He started immediately playing games with us. He showed zero remorse. He shed not one tear and yet he has literally beaten and squeezed his baby to death at 4 months old.”
