Pasco County (Florida) deputies arrested a Zephyrhills man after a 2-month-old boy was transported to the hospital with multiple skull fractures.
On Sunday, Fire Rescue officials transported a 2-month-old child to All Children’s Hospital due to the child having seizures.
When the child was examined at the hospital, medical personnel discovered that the child had multiple fractures to his skull. He also had subdural bleeding in his skull and his head was internally hemorrhaging.
Deputies say that Jacob Lee Brattain, 24, had sole care/custody of the boy when he had the episode. Brattain told deputies that the boy stiffened up in a seizure-like episode and then passed out. He claimed that nothing out of the ordinary happened and did not know how the victim sustained the skull fractures, per the arrest affidavit.
A Child Protection Team Doctor was able to review the child’s medical reports and determined that the injury was sustained due to abusive head trauma, consistent with high velocity blows to the victim’s head.
The doctor also noted that there was bilateral retinal hemorrhaging in the victim’s eyes.
According to deputies, the doctor stated that when the child stiffened up and passed out, the high velocity blows to the victims head would have occurred minutes prior to him passing out.
Deputies responded to a home in Zephyrhills to investigate the possibility of child abuse. Upon arrival at the incident location, the residence was secured for a crime scene, and a search warrant was obtained.
Deputies determined that, “[Brattain] was the only person in care/custody of the victim at the time the injuries occurred and did intentionally inflict multiple injuries to the victim,” the arrest affidavit reads.
Brattain was arrested and charged with Aggravated Child Abuse and placed under a $50,000 bond.
The child was listed in critical condition at the hospital.
