Dad with history of assault charged with abuse of 7-month-old son (St. Paul, Minnesota)

I'm not sure what's so hard to understand here. Men with histories of assault or violence do not make good childcare providers. Don't enlist dads like ROBERT JUNIOR WILLIAMS to do babysitting. Even if you're going out for a short time--just to go outside and fetch your groceries. Even those few minutes are enough for one of these @$$holes to "lose it." You got to wonder--a guy with this history. Why wasn't he in jail?

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_16106193

St. Paul / Father charged in abuse of 7-month-old boy, admits shaking him
By Kaitlyn Egan
kegan@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 09/17/2010 11:22:20 PM CDT

Police said a St. Paul mother left her "smiling, babbling and happy" infant with his father while she went outside to fetch her groceries. She returned to find the infant limp in his father's hands.

Prosecutors charged Robert Junior Williams, 36, on Wednesday with malicious punishment of a child in the Jan. 10 incident with his 7-month-old son. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

According to a criminal complaint, Williams shook the infant and caused head trauma, seizures and bleeding on the boy's brain.

St. Paul police officer Charles Redmond was sent to Children's Hospital on a report of child abuse, where a nurse practitioner told Redmond that the infant would survive, but with long-lasting effects from the injuries.

The criminal complaint gives this account:

The mother told St. Paul police Sgt. Kenneth Jensen that she had left the infant with Williams about 1 p.m. Jan. 10 while she went shopping. The mother said she had given her son a bottle and put him down for his afternoon nap before she left.

She said her son was just waking up and Williams was in the shower when she returned about 3:45 p.m. She said the baby was "awake, smiling, babbling and happy to see her when she returned home."

The mother handed the baby to Williams when he got out of the shower so she and her friend could bring in the rest of the groceries.

As she re-entered the apartment, she heard Williams yell. She went to the bedroom and found the infant limp in Williams' hands, the baby's eyes open but unmoving.

"I don't know what's wrong with him," Williams said.

The mother tried to clear her son's airway because his chest wasn't moving and he was gasping for breath.

Williams told her he had gone to get the baby a bottle and when he returned, the baby was gasping and having a seizure.

Williams denied to Jensen that he had done anything to harm his son.

Dr. Carolyn Levitt of the Midwest Children's Resource Center, which assesses children for potential abuse, said the infant's injuries resulted from head trauma that caused bleeding on the brain, which caused the seizure. She also indicated there may have been a similar incident recently, based on CT-scan and MRI results.

Williams was arrested and told officers that other children had been playing with his son's head. After he was informed that a child couldn't produce the resulting injury, Williams said his son was having a seizure and he shook him to see what was going on.

Eventually, Williams admitted he shook the baby in the air — before the seizure — to get him to stop crying.

Williams was released, and police continued investigating.

Williams has a history of assault. Nine days after this incident, he pleaded guilty to domestic assault involving another St. Paul woman and her 14-year-old daughter.

According to the criminal complaint in that case, Williams accused the woman, whom he was dating and living with at the time, of cheating on him. The two argued, and Williams repeatedly hit the woman.

When her 14-year-old daughter tried to intervene, Williams hit her several times.

A phone number for Williams could not be located.