LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A state appeals court panel Tuesday upheld a man's conviction for assaulting and murdering his live-in girlfriend's 2 1/2-year-old son at their Los Angeles apartment.

Ronald Nathaniel Salmond III, now 33, is serving a 50-years-to-life state prison sentence in connection with the June 12, 2015, death of his girlfriend's son, Elijah.

The boy -- who had been left in Salmond's care by the child's mother while she was away from the home for an appointment that afternoon -- died less than eight hours after the defendant made a 911 call reporting that the boy was choking and not breathing.

An autopsy determined that the boy had suffered multiple traumatic injuries, according to records from the Los Angeles County medical examiner's office.

Salmond was arrested by Los Angeles police in March 2017, and was convicted in November 2021 of second-degree murder and assault on a child causing death. Jurors acquitted him of the more serious crime of first-degree murder.

He was sentenced in September 2022.

Superior Court Judge Curtis Rappe said then, "I do think this was a vicious attack on a child."

The judge rejected a defense motion to strike a strike stemming from Salmond's conviction for attempted robbery in 2010 that resulted in his 25- years-to-life sentence being doubled to 50 years to life.

In his sentencing memo, Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami noted that the defendant initially said he had "no clue" why the boy died, then said, "I never meant to hurt that boy" and eventually said, "I dropped him, I dropped him."

Salmond claimed they were playing "Spaceship," that he tossed him up in the air and the boy landed on the ground after his half-sister grabbed Salmond's arm, according to the document.

"What you did was very wrong," the boy's half-sister, Emiyah, told the defendant during his sentencing hearing in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. "In my opinion, you should die. And you blamed me -- an innocent, loving, caring, 4-year-old ... for his death."

"I don't know how a grown man can kill a 2-year-old baby and blame a 4-year-old for the death," she said. "We all know you killed Elijah ... All of us who loved Elijah we just want to know why."

The prosecutor told jurors in his closing argument last year that Salmond "beat Elijah to death," while defense attorney Angela Cheung countered that the prosecution had failed to prove its case.

Salmond's mother, Christine Gray, told Rappe that her son "made numerous mistakes, but he would not make this mistake."

"He did not do this crime, he did not do this crime. He loved Elijah to his last breath," she insisted, adding that he would appeal his conviction.

As her son was being led out of court, the woman told him, "No matter how much darkness you are in, I'm your light ... We love you."

In its 51-page ruling, the three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense's contention that the trial court violated the defendant's constitutional rights by admitting his post-arrest statement to police in which he said he accidentally dropped the boy while they were playing. The justices also turned down the defense's claim that his trial attorney rendered ineffective assistance by failing to object to alleged misconduct by the prosecutor during his opening statement and closing argument.

"We conclude most of the acts Salmond complains of did not rise to the level of prosecutorial misconduct. For the remaining acts, we conclude that, even if the prosecutor acted improperly, Salmond has not shown the claimed misconduct prejudiced him," the appellate court panel found in its ruling.

The justices noted that the prosecutor's conduct in repeatedly showing the jury Salmond's booking photograph is "troubling," but added that the defense's argument has been forfeited because the defendant's trial attorney failed to object. The panel added that Salmond "has not cited any California cases holding a prosecutor's repeated display of a defendant's booking photograph during opening statement or closing argument constitutes misconduct."

Tim Conway Jr