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, age 35, contacted police on Sunday afternoon reporting that he found his son unresponsive and tried to resuscitate him, as reported by Eastern New Mexico News. Initially, a friend supported his account, but later revealed she had actually witnessed White strangling the baby hours before.
A criminal complaint reveals that the friend, identified in court documents as Audrie Liverani, initially informed the police that she had checked on the baby about an hour before discovering the overturned bouncer—used instead of a crib due to cockroaches, according to White—covered with a blanket over the child.
“Audrie stated she lifted the blanket and saw Joseph with his face pressed into the mattress, his body purple,” the documents reveal. “Audrie then called out for Jared to come to the room, shouting, ‘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.
