After the child expired, a CAT scan and retina exam was conducted on the child and the doctors concluded that the bleeding in the brain had resulted in the presence of bruises in the child’s brain. The doctors wrote their opinions on the child’s medical chart: they found that the child died due to injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
Since the child did not die of natural causes, a post-mortem examination was performed by a medical examiner. He noted that the child seemed dirty and disheveled. Dirt was found under the nails and the child had a bald spot in the back of her head. The cause of death was whiplash and broken spine due to shaking and blunt force trauma to the head which caused bleeding in the child’s brain. The medical examiner found bruising in the muscles around the cervical spine and in the thoracic spine. When the child’s spinal cord was examined, there was tearing and bruising present. The child’s death was ruled a homicide.
The mother was brought the police precinct where she was interviewed by a police detective. She admitted to having shaken the child and once or twice hit the baby in the bottom area. She blamed her live-in partner of having killed her baby. The mother gave statements to the assistant district attorney who interviewed her on camera. The district attorney gave the mother a doll so that she can demonstrate how she handled her child. She took the doll by the armpits with her thumbs on the baby’s chest and her fingers on her back. She then shook the doll four times and the doll’s head bobbed back and forth. She also demonstrated how she punched the baby in the head as he sat on her lap facing her when he woke up fussy at 3am.