GRAND RAPIDS, MI - As a judge recounted the horrors of a 4-year-old's beating death, Elis Nelson Ortiz-Nieves - in restraints - tried to fight Kent County sheriff's deputies before he was hauled out of the courtroom.

Ortiz-Nieves shouted at the judge, who called him a "monster," while others in the gallery cursed and cried.

"You beat this child, you brutalized this child and you tortured this child," Kent County Circuit Judge Mark Trusock said Thursday, Jan. 11, before the defendant's outburst.

He said Giovanni Mejias was bruised from "head to toe, front to back." He had seven broken ribs, a bruise in the shape of a belt buckle and a fatal blow to his stomach that caused internal bleeding.

The defendant, 27, was the boyfriend of the victim's mother, Sonja Hernandez, who has supported him.

Ortiz-Nieves, who contends he is innocent and plans to appeal, erupted as the judge reviewed evidence at trial that resulted in the defendant's convictions of felony murder, carrying a mandatory life sentence with no parole, and first-degree child abuse.

Sheriff's deputies led the defendant into a courtroom hallway, where he stayed while the judge sentenced a defendant in an unrelated case. Ortiz-Nieves returned calmer but the judge - who said he would sentence him in court or in jail - was not finished.

"You are the lowest form of human life. You are a monster, and, quite frankly, you are evil," Trusock said. "You should never be allowed out of prison. ... You will die in the prison system."

He sentenced Ortiz-Nieves to life in prison without hope for parole in the killing, and an 80- to 150-year concurrent sentence for child abuse.

The victim's grandmother, Nora Villarreal-Mulero, said her family took balloons to his gravesite on Wednesday, the little boy's birthday.

"We'll never see him again. I'll never seen him grow up," she told the judge.

"(Ortiz-Nieves) tore our family apart."

Assistant Kent Count Prosecutor Travis Earley said that the defendant's supporters, who have backed him in media reports, are badly misinformed.

The evidence at trial was strong, particularly about the boy's injuries. Dr. David Start, a forensic pathologist, said the boy suffered blows "with the force equivalent with an automobile accident," Earley told the judge.

Ortiz-Nieves said he didn't hurt the boy, but was trying "to help him," he told the judge.

The boy was not breathing when someone called 911 on June 13 to a mobile home in the 200 block of North Green Meadow Street in Gaines Township. Ortiz-Nieves was there with Giovanni and six other children.

Ortiz-Nieves said the boy was sick, and he poked the child's stomach to get him to vomit. He told another child to call 911 when the boy's condition deteriorated. He began CPR, he said.

A jury took an hour to find him guilty.

Ortiz-Nieves blew a kiss at someone as he entered the courtroom. As he left, a woman said, "I love you, Nelson."