A former Navy sailor who had an unblemished record until he inexplicably inflicted life-threatening injuries on his infant son was sentenced Thursday in New London Superior Court to eight years in prison.

“What I did was inexcusable,” 25-year-old Jordan E. Rittenhouse told Judge Hillary B. Strackbein. “It doesn’t matter whether I apologize for it. It doesn’t make up for what I did.”

A native of Rockwell, N.C., Rittenhouse was attending submarine school at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton and living in Navy housing with his wife and two children when he inflicted 29 bone fractures and multiple lacerations on the infant.

The child has recovered fully, according to prosecutor Theresa Anne Ferryman, but a doctor who treated the baby in August 2014 called it “the worst case of serious physical injury she has seen in her career.”

Rittenhouse told police he had been under a lot of stress and had squeezed the baby several times, sometimes so hard that the child stopped crying, and had once shoved the baby’s bottle into his mouth, causing the infant’s mouth to bleed.

He has remained incarcerated since his arrest and stood before the judge in shackles and tan prison scrubs.

He voluntarily resigned from the Navy and pleaded guilty to two counts of risk of injury to a minor in exchange for a sentence of 20 years in prison, suspended after eight years served, followed by five years of probation.

Under the agreement, his attorney, Bruce A. Sturman, had the right to argue for a reduced prison term.

Sturman said Rittenhouse came from a supportive family, had no prior contact with the criminal justice system and had joined the Navy because he thought it was the best option for the family he and his wife had started.

“I don’t think there’s one of us whose heartstrings aren’t pulled when a child is victimized,” Sturman said. “The conundrum is that Jordan is a good kid who did a terrible thing.”

The child’s mother, who has moved back to North Carolina, did not attend the sentencing but told court officials she considers the abuse an aberration and hopes, one day, that the family will reunite.

Rittenhouse’s family members filled a courtroom bench and some of them grabbed for tissues during the hearing.

Ferryman, the prosecutor, argued that the full sentence should be imposed, noting that in recommending the eight-year prison term, the state had taken into account that Rittenhouse’s conduct throughout his life had been beyond reproach.

Attorney Lori Hellum, who had served as a guardian ad litem for the child, also recommended the full sentence.

“We are left with a situation in which we have numerous serious incidents,” Ferryman said. “This did not happen on one occasion. This happened over a period of time.”

The child’s mother took him to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital because he was not eating right and fussing, according to the state. Doctors detected multiple rib fractures and transferred him to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where he was treated by the child abuse assessment team.

Dr. Andrea Asnes reported he had 29 bone fractures showing various degrees of healing. She said some were consistent with squeezing injuries, but the baby also had fractures of the extremities not consistent with squeezing. She said she was surprised the baby was alive.

Judge Strackbein said she had received many letters of support for Rittenhouse, but that most of the writers seemed not to understand that Rittenhouse had abused his son over a period of time.

“A case like this shocks the conscience of the court and the community,” Strackbein said. “Everyone has stress. An infant enters the world helpless, and the two people who should be there to protect him are his parents.”

The judge imposed the full sentence, saying the criminal justice system had to speak on behalf of the baby.

“You have a whole life ahead of you, and I hope you can figure out what caused you to do this,” she told Rittenhouse.

The judge imposed a number of probation conditions on Rittenhouse, including no contact with the victim or any children unless supervised by somebody approved by probation officials.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN