Babysitting dad sentenced to 36 months in prison for murder of 7-week-old son (Baltimore, Maryland)

Dad HIAWATHA A. HENRY had important stuff to do, you know, like play video games! No time for crying babies! So, he got "frustrated"! Then when the baby (presumably) "fell," he refused to tell the doctors that the baby had been injured. He told them the baby just started vomiting when he tried to feed him. In other words, he lied. The baby died from abusive head trauma.

Any mom who killed her baby in this way would have been strung up as an unnatural monster. Not this dude. He gets just 36 months in prison for killing his newborn son, plus all the useless anger management classes.  And don't forget the "psychological treatment." (And the fathers rights people say that only moms play the mental health card....)

This guy isn't mentally ill. He's just a typical late adolescent male. Should have had a job instead of (not) caring for babies, that's all.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/man-sentenced-in-death-of-his-infant-son-in-dc/2011/10/14/gIQANtvUkL_blog.html

Posted at 04:08 PM ET, 10/14/2011

Man sentenced in death of his infant son in DC

By Keith L. Alexander


A D.C. Superior Court judge sentenced a Baltimore man to 36 months in prison on Friday in connection with the 2009 death of the man’s seven-week-old son.

Prosecutors originally had charged Hiawatha A. Henry, 19, with first-degree murder in the death of his son, Hiawatha Jackson. Hiawatha Jackson died of severe bruises to the brain while his father was babysitting.

Henry was watching his son and another infant at the children’s mother’s house on Aug. 30, 2009, in the 1800 block of Bryant St. NE. Henry told police that he sat on a futon to feed Hiawatha, but the futon was broken and both he and the baby fell. Hiawatha hit his head on the metal leg of the furniture, Henry told police after his arrest.

Later that evening, Henry’s aunt called paramedics and rushed the baby to the hospital. Henry never told doctors about the fall. Instead, he said the infant began vomiting while he was feeding him. Doctors later released the infant to return home with his father.

During the course of the night, the baby continued crying and was taken back to the hospital the next day. This time, doctors discovered the infant was bleeding from inside his brain. Hiawatha fell into a coma and later died from his injuries.

According to a medical examiner’s report, Hiawatha died of abusive head injuries with a brain contusion.

In July, Henry pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. “If he had been honest and not omitted to medical personnel about the head injury, the infant’s chances of survival would have been different,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Wright at sentencing. “He allowed his infant son to suffer overnight, allowing the infant to cry and cough without seeking further medical care.

Wright said Henry, who was playing video games at the time his son was injured, suffered from “low impulse control” and was easily frustrated.

The judge ruled Henry must undergo educational and vocational training, anger management and intensive psychological treatment while in prison and while under five years of probation.

In sentencing Henry, Judge Gerald I . Fisher called the involuntary manslaughter case “fairly troubling” and pointed out that the victim was “an innocent child.”