Blake Dopirak, 27, was ordered to serve 24 years behind bars in St. Louis County Circuit Courtroom on Thursday for the 2022 loss of life of his son, Zaydian Dopirak. This after Blake had pleaded responsible final month to 1 felony rely of endangering the welfare of a kid leading to loss of life.

However whereas Blake is going through many years behind bars, there are these in Zaydian’s life who really feel that the system completely failed the toddler and his loss of life may have been prevented.

The St. Louis Police Division responded to a name for an unresponsive youngster simply after 8 a.m. on January 2, 2022 in Manchester, Missouri, per NBC affiliate KSDK, after Blake known as 911 and instructed dispatch that his son had out of the blue stopped respiratory.

Zaydian was rushed to the hospital, however he would finally die the next night. An post-mortem on his physique led to the dedication that his loss of life was the results of a murder, with the coroner’s report giving his explanation for loss of life as “non-accidental closed head trauma.”

After investigating the matter, Blake was arrested and charged in relation to his son’s loss of life. Charging paperwork state that Blake instructed police he was alone when his son grew to become unresponsive.

What investigators additionally uncovered was that this was not the primary time Zaydian had offered with these very same kinds of accidents, and it wasn’t the primary time authorities believed it was fairly actually at Blake’s palms.

In 2018, when Zaydian was simply 5 weeks outdated, he was critically injured and hospitalized because of alleged bodily abuse by his father. On the time, medical personnel described the kid as having suffered a “non-accidental traumatic mind harm.”

The kid was subsequently faraway from his care and positioned with a foster household. In an interview with Fox affiliate KTVI final week, a type of foster dad and mom described that preliminary harm by saying Zaydian’s cranium had been “crushed by hand.”

The foster dad and mom, Daybreak and Jeff James, have been extraordinarily vital of the state for returning the boy to his father, contemplating the seriousness of his earlier accidents when he was only a child. KTVI reported that the couple was in court docket for Blake’s sentencing, the place they “might be heard weeping” alongside a remedy canine supplied by the prosecutor’s workplace.

“We should always have by no means been right here, if the courts would have initially listened,” stated Daybreak exterior the courthouse.

In line with KTVI, it was the Jameses who took in Zaydian at 4 months outdated. On the time, they stated they have been instructed he would by no means stroll, however stated he not solely walked however thrived of their care.

The couple would go on to petition for everlasting guardianship. They stated that in 2022, that they had social employees, a pediatrician, and a guardian advert litem assist their petition by testifying that it might be too harmful to return Zaydian to his father’s care.

“When you’ve so many individuals telling you that if this youngster is returned residence, he will likely be killed, you must hearken to that,” Daybreak instructed KTVI. “We have been shocked when the choose stated she was going to do a trial reunification.”

Shortly after the reunification, Zaydian was lifeless, Blake was charged along with his homicide, and the household court docket commissioner who’d ordered the reunification retired. Daybreak stated that the retirement restored the James’ religion “that no household could be put by means of this once more.”

Following Blake’s sentence, St. Louis County Prosecuting Lawyer Melissa Worth Smith stated that she felt “justice has been served.”

“We’re relieved for this household that this painful chapter is over, they usually can proceed on their path to therapeutic,” she stated, including, “Might this angel relaxation in peace.”

Daybreak additionally spoke after the sentencing, saying, “I do know that Zaydian can by no means be introduced again, however my household acquired justice for him at the moment. Figuring out that he’s going to go away, I’ve somewhat little bit of peace.”