Man charged in child’s death released on bail

A Philadelphia judge this morning agreed to release Joseph Zysk - accused of killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old son because he wouldn't stop crying - on $200,000 bail and electronically monitored house arrest.

Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner agreed to the bail request by defense attorney Jack McMahon over the objections of Assistant District Attorney Beth McCaffery.

Zysk, 28, is charged with murder in the Jan. 15 death of Jason Larkin, which occurred when the boy and his mother, Zysk's girlfriend Danieala Gonzalez, 21, were staying overnight in the Roxborough house of Zysk shared with his mother, Patricia Zysk Cannon.

Under the plan agreed to by Lerner, when Zysk posts bail he will live under house arrest at Cannon's house until trial. Lerner also ordered Zysk to undergo weekly drug testing and have no contact with his four-year-old daughter, who lives with her mother in Berwyn.

The judge also ordered Zysk's family and the families of Gonzalez or Jason Larkin Sr., the dead boy's father, to have no contact with each other.

"This case will be resolved in the court, not on the street," Lerner said.

McCaffery objected to Zysk living with Cannon, saying that the killing - and heavy use of heroin and other drugs by Zysk and his girlfriend - was "going on right under her nose."

Cannon told Lerner she would agree to the bail conditions and the judge warned her that if her son violates the bail terms or tests positive for illegal drug use, his bail will be revoked and he will be returned to prison.