A New Mexico man has been charged in the death of his 5-month-old son that he blamed on a tipped-over bouncer.
Jared White, 35, called police Sunday afternoon, saying he’d found his son not breathing and attempted to revive him, Eastern New Mexico News reported. A friend of his initially corroborated his story, but later said that she saw White strangling the baby hours earlier.
According to a criminal complaint, the friend, identified in court records as Audrie Liverani, first told police she had checked on the baby about an hour before finding the bouncer — which White said the baby slept in because his crib had cockroaches — tipped over with a blanket on top of the child.
“Audrie said she lifted the blanket and observed Joseph with his face in the mattress and his body to be purple,” documents say. “Audrie said at this time she yelled for Jared to come to the bedroom stating, “I think your baby is dead.”
According to KOB, White said the discovery was made after he’d left the baby in the bouncer for a about an hour while he went to a friend’s house.
But, according to investigators, the baby “was in full rigor mortis at the time he was transported to the hospital,” Eastern New Mexico News said.
“In addition, it was discovered that once transported to the hospital, the rigor mortis began to release,” court documents said. ” … (T)his process would take between 6 to 8 hours to release. This would indicate that the death of [the child] would have had to have occurred much earlier than the story that was being given.”
Liverani was interviewed again, and this time she said that she heard the baby crying at about 1 a.m. Sunday morning. She went into the bedroom, where she saw White “to have wrapped [the baby] into a blanket.”
“She then saw Jared lift [the infant] into the air by his neck while still being wrapped in the blanket,” the documents say. “Audrie described Jared to have both hands wrapped around [the baby’s] neck and to have been strangling him.”
Investigators said the child had “marks around his neck consistent with being strangled.”
Clovis Police said a second child in the home was taken into protective custody “due to the conditions of the home and as part of the ongoing investigation.” The home was described as “completely unsanitary and a possible health risk,” littered with animal feces.
Police found drug paraphernalia in the house, a dirty mattress in the bedroom, a baby bottle with a cockroach inside it, and rotten and molded food in the refrigerators, KOB said. The second child was on a urine-soaked mattress, with severe diaper rash.
White has been charged with child abuse resulting in death and abandonment or abuse of a child. He is being held without bond.
