Father Loses Temper Over NBA2K Game, Tragically Injures 8-Month-Old Son

A man from Wisconsin faces over ten years in prison after violently throwing his 8-month-old son against a wall over frustrations with a basketball video game. This disturbing event unfolded in the family’s shared living space.

On Monday, 22-year-old Jalin A. White admitted guilt to charges of child abuse – recklessly causing significant bodily harm, and child neglect – leading to severe injury. This confession was part of a plea deal reviewed by Law&Crime.

Subsequently, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Anderson M. Gansner accepted White’s plea, opting for a slightly reduced sentence than the 14 years the state initially sought. White received a sentence of 12 years in prison, followed by seven years of probation.

The incident took place on November 5, 2024.

According to a criminal complaint accessed by Law&Crime, White was at home caring for his son on that day. They were alone in a room rented by White and the child’s mother in the grandparents’ house on 42nd Street, Milwaukee.

Before leaving to purchase marijuana, the mother reported that her son, referred to as JW in legal documents, was in good health. However, upon her return, she was alarmed to find her baby in distress in his playpen, struggling to breathe, and experiencing “twitching” in his right arm, according to the charging documents.

So, the mother picked JW up, causing White to “angrily” ask where she was going and demanding she give him the baby, according to the complaint. The mom took JW to her father, who told her to call 911.

The infant was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was diagnosed with skull fractures, six broken ribs and a healing broken collar bone. At one point, the child was intubated and lost his pulse, requiring multiple rounds of CPR to revive him. While not initially expected to survive, JW was, in the end, able to recuperate from the extreme abuse, prosecutors told Law&Crime in an email on Tuesday.

When interviewed after being Mirandized, White offered various narratives to account for the child’s injuries – including one claim that the little boy fell off an air mattress onto the carpeted floor. None of those explanations, however, aligned with the severity of the trauma.

At one point, White said he was holding the child while standing and playing the video game when the boy fell “hard to the floor.” Detectives were not satisfied and asked, “Did you try to put him on the bed, and he hit the wall?”

Eventually, the defendant admitted to throwing JW against the wall while he was frustrated with the video game.

White told investigators he was playing NBA2K – a basketball simulation video game – and became frustrated that he was down 2 points in the fourth quarter, which led him to throw the boy against the wall.

The defendant specifically said he was holding JW to “keep him chill for a little bit” when the boy grew heavy in his arms, so he threw the child against the wall and onto the bed. White described how the boy hit the wall a foot above the bed before landing face-first. Detectives said they would need to check with medical professionals to see if that admission made sense.

Then, the defendant grew adamant.

“My son hit his head on the wall,” White told detectives, repeatedly emphasizing the impact. “He hit his head hard on the wall, bro. I swear he hit his head hard on the wall…I heard the wall, it was hard on his head. It was hard. It was a loud hard wall.”

During White’s first court appearance in November 2024, a prosecutor described the incident: “You heard the bang of the wall.”

On Tuesday, in his likely final court appearance over the matter, the defendant was handed a nine-year sentence on the first count and a three-year sentence on the second count, Badger State court records showed. He was credited with 419 days spent in pretrial detention.

White must also complete several post-incarceration classes, programs, and treatment regimes. And he is never allowed to use corporal punishment for any child who comes into his care.