A 38-year-old father and former state employee in the California governor’s office will spend the rest of his life in prison for torturing and beating his newborn infant to death last year.
El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Mark A. Ralphs sentenced Kevin Van Streefkerk to life in prison without parole earlier this month for the brutal murder of young Alya Van Streefkerk, who died on Father’s Day last year, according to authorities.
“Life in prison is an extraordinary sentence, but there is no sentence that could feel like justice in this case,” prosecutors said in a statement after the sentence.
Van Streefkerk, a telecommunications technician for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, had previously negotiated an agreement with the district attorney’s office in which he pled guilty to one count of first-degree murder with a “infliction of torture” enhancement. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped other murder counts as well as one case of mistreatment of a child under the age of eight, which resulted in death.
Prosecutors say much of the “heinous physical abuse” done on baby Alya was captured on film, and Van Streefkerk later delivered a confession in which he “described multiple beatings” of his newborn daughter, according to an El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office release. In recounting the final deadly assault, prosecutors said Van Streefkerk told them he “beat the living daylights out of her.”
During Van Streefkerk’s sentencing hearing on July 12, 2024, Deputy District Attorney Kassie Cardullo told the court that after Alya’s death, Van Streefkerk “never cried or showed any emotion” during multiple interviews with police.
“The pain that this case caused for everyone who touched it and the family that continues to mourn the life of this sweet, innocent infant, simply pales in comparison to the pain that Alya herself experienced,” according to Cardullo. “She seemed so small, fragile, and defenseless. She couldn’t fight back or even admit she was in pain. It is unintelligible.
Before imposing the punishment, Ralphs called Van Streefkerk’s actions “especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel.”
According to the Sacramento Bee, Alya’s mother confronted Van Streefkerk in a victim impact statement, accusing him of killing their daughter.
“All I see is evil,” she reportedly stated. “I don’t have any remorse for you.”
As previously reported, on June 17, officers responded to a call reporting “physical abuse against an infant.” The police did not specify where the deputies reacted but did state that Van Streefkerk lived in Cameron Park with his wife and young girl, which is just over 30 miles east of Sacramento.
“The infant sustained numerous injuries as a result of the abuse,” according to a release from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office. She was promptly rushed to the hospital and admitted in critical condition. Unfortunately, the small child died from her injuries the next day in the hospital. She was pronounced deceased on June 18, Father’s Day.
Investigators said they swiftly discovered evidence linking Van Streefkerk to Alya’s murder. Cardulo earlier stated that the newborn had “three skull fractures, a minimum of eight blunt force impacts to her tiny face, and multiple brain bleeds” as a result of her father’s beatings.
In addition to his position with the governor’s office, Van Streefkerk worked as the head tennis coach at Mesa Verde High School in Citrus Heights from August to November 2022.