"Frustrated" dad faces felony battery charge in death of 2-month-old daughter (Franklin, Indiana)

Happens again and again. Unemployed/underemployed (and possibly unemployable) dad drafted into infant caregiving since Mom has to go back to work--since we don't have paid maternity leave requirements or anything. Of course, the @$$hole gets "frustrated" and bashes the baby. And, as almost always happens, our big Macho Hero is too much of a coward to call 911 or seek medical help. He leaves that task to Mom.

This time the dad is identified as JAMISON CYRUS ALLAN HENDLEY.

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/local_story/Father-faces-felony-in-baby-s-_1444271184

Father faces felony in baby’s death

By Abby Armbruster
First Posted: October 07, 2015 - 10:26 pm Last Updated: October 07, 2015 - 10:27 pm

Frustrated with the baby’s crying, a Franklin father shook his 2-month-old daughter and then threw her across the room into a chair.

Jamison Cyrus Allan Hendley, 22, realized the baby was not breathing right. He then put the baby to bed and got into the shower. Shortly after, the baby’s mother came home from work and realized something was wrong with 2-month-old Braelyn and took her to the hospital.

Four days later, the baby died at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis. An autopsy showed the infant died of blunt force trauma to her head, causing massive brain injuries. Doctors at the hospital said the extent of the damage showed the injury wasn’t accidental. Days later and after multiple interviews with investigators, Hendley told police the details of what happened that day.

This week, he was charged with battery resulting in death of a child younger than 14. He could face 10 to 30 years in prison, Johnson County Prosecutor Brad Cooper said.

The charge is the highest level charge the prosecutor’s office can file for a shaken baby case, Cooper said, adding, “The evidence fits it.”

Hendley had been watching the baby since 2:30 p.m. Sept. 30, when Autumn Grissom, the baby’s mother, went to work. He first told police he became angry when the baby was crying and picked her up quickly and might have shaken her a little, according to the charging documents.

The next day, he told police the baby had fallen out of a stroller and that he had held her above a chair and dropped her into it. The baby fell onto the floor, the documents said.

Around 9 p.m., the baby started crying nonstop, and Hendley didn’t want to call 911 because he knew he had done something wrong, the documents said.

In another interview this week, Hendley told police he got frustrated with the baby’s crying and shook her. When she didn’t stop crying, he threw her across the room into a chair. The baby fell out of the chair and onto the floor, and then he knew she wasn’t breathing properly, the report said.

At 11:30 p.m., Grissom returned home from work and took the baby to the hospital. Hendley didn’t go with her.

Doctors found bruising on the baby’s right arm and leg, significant brain injury, significant retinal bleeding and retinal detachment and she was having constant seizures, according to the probable cause affidavit from the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office.

Braelyn’s heart and valves were donated to two other infants, according to Michelle Ingle of Orleans, the baby’s grandmother. “With her having the traumatic brain injuries ... the only organ they were able to use was her heart,” Ingle said. Grissom wants to meet the babies who received Braelyn’s organs, Ingle said.

Hendley, 5700 U.S. 31 South, Franklin, remains in the Johnson County jail on $46,000 bond. He will go in front of a judge within the next week to hear his new charges, and a pretrial conference will be set within the next few months, Cooper said.

The Times-Mail of Bedford contributed to this report.