Background: Bexar County Sheriff’s Office & Detention Center (bcsocareers.com) Inset: Samantha Elizabeth Baker (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office)
A Texas woman is set to spend the next 30 years behind bars after admitting to hitting her infant child because he was crying, leading to his death.
On Tuesday, Judge Christine Del Prado from the Texas District Court handed down a 30-year prison sentence to Samantha Elizabeth Baker of San Antonio. This sentencing was for inflicting severe bodily harm on her newborn son, as reported by the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office in a news release. Unfortunately, the infant passed away from these injuries.
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In June 2023, emergency services were alerted to the “sudden death” of Baker’s newborn. Initially, Baker claimed she discovered her baby unresponsive, but she later confessed to striking him “out of frustration while he was crying,” according to the news release.
A medical examiner found that the baby sustained a fractured skull due to blunt force trauma.
“Today’s sentencing underscores our community’s dedication to safeguarding children and ensuring that individuals who harm them are brought to justice,” stated Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales.
When police spoke with Baker, who was 21 at the time, following the emergency call in 2023, she told them she hit the baby on his head “hard” roughly three times with an open palm, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by KSAT. She had allegedly “bec[o]me frustrated when the victim began to cry and took her frustration out on the victim.”
She initially said she wrapped her baby in a blanket, per the outlet, and placed him faceup in his bassinet — and then woke up to find him unresponsive.
It was reportedly the boy’s father who called 911, pleading for help after Baker called him at work with the news.
