Daryson Balisalisa will spend at least the next 18 months in prison for badly injuring a 5-month-old boy he was watching for a relative in April.

Third District Judge Bradley Ford gave Balisalisa an eight year prison sentence Monday for a charge of felony injury to child. Balisalisa, who must also pay $5,000 to the child, can ask for parole after serving 18 months of that sentence.

The boy, five months old at the time, was hospitalized in April with severe bleeding in the brain and retinal hemorrhages in the eyes, according to court records.

Balisalisa was watching the boy in April because the mother, who was a relative, was incarcerated at the time, prosecutors said.

Dr. Paul McPherson, who treated the boy last spring, said in court Monday that infants who suffer shaking injuries can have long term medical and developmental problems.

“Unfortunately at this time we don’t’ know the full extent of his disabilities and won’t know until he hits developmental milestones, (like) beginning school,” McPherson said.

Balisalisa admitted Monday to striking and shaking the boy last spring because he was crying. “I changed someone’s life who had absolutely no form of self-defense and I did it out of anger,” Balisalisa said, according to prosecutor reports.

“This could have been a homicide case as (Balisalisa) ... said he thought he killed the child,” Ford said in court Monday. “It is important to send a message of deterrence to (Balisalisa) and others in society that abusing a child, particularly a child so vulnerable, is not acceptable in our community.”

Canyon County Deputy Prosecutor Erica Kallin said Balisalisa blamed others, including his own kids, and “minimized his conduct” over the last several months until Monday, when Balisalisa “threw himself on the mercy of the court.

“That acknowledgment doesn’t help the victim, who suffered tremendously and will continue to suffer as a result of the severe violence inflicted at the hands of Mr. Balisalisa,” Kallin said.