Parents of a newborn baby who died after suffering a cracked skull and over 90 fractures in Houston, Texas last July, were arrested for their daughter’s death, AP reported on Wednesday. The baby, Jazmine Robin, was born prematurely and was 10 weeks old when she died on July 15 last year.
The father, Jason Paul Robin 24, has been charged with murder while the mother Katharine Wyndham White, 21, has been booked under the charge of injury to a child by omission. Robin was arrested on Monday after he appeared in court and White was arrested on Tuesday morning. The two are being held in Harris County jail.
“After a full and thorough investigation of the facts, we have filed charges, and will seek justice for young Jazmine,” said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.
Robin told investigators that he had taken her to the hospital after she refused to be fed through a bottle and had gone limp for a few minutes. He admitted that hearing the baby cry would annoy him but claimed he had never hit the child, CNN reported.
The baby’s pediatrician said that she had noticed bruises around the child’s eye during a checkup before she died. She had asked the parents to take the child to a hospital immediately. Detectives were called in to the hospital after the staff reported a “clearly inflicted head trauma”, according to a Houston Police affidavit.
The autopsy, which was completed last month, revealed that the child died due to blunt force trauma to the head. Investigators suspect that Jazmine Robin’s cries would anger her father who would violently shake her. “It is concluded that a minimum of two traumatic events resulted in 96 fractures,” AP quoted the affidavit as saying. If convicted, the parents face life sentences.
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