A man who admitted laughing while his girlfriend repeatedly burned her year-old son with a cigarette has had no luck convincing a state appeals court that his prison sentence is too long.

Instead, in an opinion by Judge Maria McLaughlin a Superior Court panel rejected Enrique Soto’s appeal, thereby upholding his 38- to 76-month jail term.

As McLaughlin noted, Soto admitted in court that he laughed as Anna Russell burned her son at least 15 times with a lighted cigarette at her Pittsburgh home in 2015.

Allegheny County Judge David Cashman imposed Soto’s prison term in January 2017 after Soto, now 27, pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy, child endangerment, simple assault of a child and reckless endangerment. Soto had no sentencing deal.

McLaughlin found that Soto had fumbled his appeal because he didn’t take the proper steps to legally preserve his argument that his sentence was excessive. Russell was sentenced to 1 to 2 years in prison after pleading guilty to assault and other counts, court filings show.

Yet, even if Soto has properly crafted his appeal, “we would reject it,” McLaughlin wrote. She found that Soto’s “bald claim” that his sentence is excessive and his argument that he was unfairly punished more harshly than Russell “entitles him to no relief.”

Court records show that before the child-burning case Soto already had convictions for crimes including assault, making terroristic threats and receiving stolen property.