A 27-year-old Minnesota man has been charged with the severe beating of his 2-month-old son that led to his death earlier this week.
Hunter Matthew McCutchen has been charged with four counts of first-degree manslaughter and one count of endangering a child, the Post Bulletin reported.
According to the criminal complaint, the child’s mother called 911 on Tuesday, telling dispatchers the baby boy was not breathing, his skin was pale, and he had purple eyelids. First responders started life-saving efforts and eventually took the infant to Mayo Clinic Hospital-St. Marys, where he was pronounced dead early Thursday morning.
Hospital staff told investigators the boy had multiple rib fractures, in various stages of healing, and fracture to the clavicle that was suggestive of non-accidental trauma. Imaging of his head showed multiple spots of bleeding on the brain and a loss of brain function.
According to KSTP, the boy’s mother said she left the baby with McCutchen while she took her 4-year-old child to pre-school. When she returned home just after noon with the 4-year-old, McCutchen was holding the baby and said he wasn’t eating. Ten minutes later, McCutchen called for her, and she saw the boy was pale and blue. The parents performed CPR while waiting on emergency responders.
McCutchen initially told detectives that the boy suddenly became “unresponsive” and he didn’t know why. The mother said she had recently noticed bruising on the boy’s body
On Wednesday, she gave investigators a video of McCutchen apparently admitting that he shook the baby and put his hand over his mouth, the complaint says.
When the mother asked him why, he says he “just got so overwhelmed and I didn’t, I wasn’t thinking. I don’t know, I wasn’t thinking.” according to the complaint.
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“I can’t believe you did this to my baby,” she says, according to the Post Bulletin. “I asked you if you were fine watching him and you said yes.”
“I thought I was,” McCutchen replies. “I never, nothing like that happened like that ever happened with (a different child).”
“I don’t know how it could happen ever,” the mother replies. “I have to watch my baby die.”
McCutchen made a first appearance in court on Friday and will return next month.
He is being held without bond, according to jail records.
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[Featured image: Hunter Matthew McCutchen/Goodhue County Jail]
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