Inset: Jalin White (Milwaukee County Jail). Background: The Milwaukee home where White allegedly threw a baby against a wall (Google Maps).
A Wisconsin man is in custody after allegedly throwing an 8-month-old baby boy against a wall in a Milwaukee home because he was losing a basketball-themed video game.
Jalin A. White, who according to court records is 20 years old, is facing charges of child abuse with great bodily harm and child neglect. He’s at the Milwaukee County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
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Prosecutors described the alleged abuse during White’s first appearance in front of Milwaukee County Court Commissioner Andrea Bolender.
“Your statement (was) he hit the wall hard. You heard the bang of the wall,” Bolender told White, according to a courtroom report from local ABC affiliate WISN.
The child is at the hospital but is not expected to survive, authorities say.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime, the incident happened Tuesday at White’s home in the 7000 block of 42nd Street near Good Hope Road in north Milwaukee. White and the boy’s mother rent a room in the home owned by her parents, police said. She went to work and left the boy in the care of White, who is unemployed and takes care of him full time.
The boy, identified in the complaint as JW, was in good health when his mother came home from work that day, but she allegedly went out again to buy some marijuana, detectives wrote. White was watching the child while playing video games. When the mother got back, she found the boy in his playpen “making noises,” the affidavit said. He was barely breathing and his right arm was “twitching,” the complaint said. The mother picked him up with White allegedly “angrily” asking where she was going and to give him the baby, she later told detectives. She took the boy to her father who told her to call 911.
Doctors at the hospital said the boy suffered from skull fractures, six broken ribs and a healing broken collar bone, the complaint said. They do not believe the boy will survive his injuries.
After receiving his Miranda warnings, White gave varying accounts of how the boy may have suffered the injuries, including that he fell off an air mattress onto the carpeted floor. But none of White’s explanations could match the severity of his son’s injuries, cops noted. Eventually he admitted to throwing the boy against the wall, the complaint stated.
“My son hit his head on the wall. He hit his head hard on the wall, bro,” White allegedly said. “I heard the wall … It was a loud hard wall.”
White then told detectives he was playing the video game NBA2K and became frustrated that he was down two points in the fourth quarter, which led him to throwing the boy against the wall.
“This is a severe level of violence for an innocent, infant child,” Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Madeline Witte reportedly said.
White reportedly shook his head and wiped away tears during the hearing.
“The medical personnel have indicated that this child, sadly, is not expected to live to which case these charges will be increased to a homicide,” Bolender said, according to video from Madison ABC affiliate WKOW.
Per WISN, court officials said White faces more than 60 years behind bars should he be convicted of child abuse and up to life should the boy die and the charges be upgraded to homicide. White has a court hearing scheduled for Friday.
The complaint said the victim’s mother also is facing charges, but those details were not immediately available.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to show the correct incident location.
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