Background: The Travelodge in College Park, Ga. where the infant son of Jerry Chambers Jr. was found dead on Jan. 28 (Google Maps). Inset: Jerry Chambers Jr. (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office).
A Georgia man who allegedly left his 3-month-old son to die in a hotel room claimed to police that he tried to help — but the autopsy report suggests that might not actually be the case.
Jerry Chambers Jr., 21, was arrested in January after his 3-month-old son Joshua was found dead in a hotel room in College Park, Georgia. According to an affidavit obtained by local ABC affiliate WSB, Chambers told police that he found Joshua unresponsive in the hotel room where he was staying. Chambers claimed that he found the infant “unresponsive and foaming at the mouth” and said “he attempted to resuscitate [him], but he remained unresponsive.”
The affidavit also stated that Chambers said he left the baby at the hotel while he went to work.
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According to the affidavit, police said that Chambers did not call 911 when he saw the condition of his infant son. Instead, police said, Chambers left Joshua again to go to another hotel with a friend.
When Chambers returned, once again seeing that his infant son was unresponsive, he “packed a bag” and did not render any aid or call for help.
WSB reported that investigators believed Chambers did not call 911 for two days after initially finding Joshua unresponsive. Chambers was arrested on Jan. 28 after police found the baby dead and charged the father with murder and cruelty to children.
The findings of an autopsy conducted on Joshua were shared with WSB on Tuesday. The Fulton County Medical Examiner confirmed to the station that the baby’s cause of death was “dehydration and undernourishment due to infant neglect.” The manner of death was homicide.
Chambers remains in custody at the Fulton County Jail on $150,000 bond.
