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A man has been taken into custody following allegations that he tossed his infant, subsequently claiming the child “bounced” and ended up under a chair, according to reports.
Christopher Leon Jenkins is facing charges of capital murder and is currently held at Texas’ Harris County Jail, with a bond set at $2 million, as indicated by jail records reviewed by Oxygen.
Jenkins has not yet submitted a plea, as stated by his attorney, Kathryn Kahle, who told Oxygen, “We are eager to defend Mr. Jenkins vigorously in court.”
In a distressing incident reported in July, emergency services were called to address a medical emergency involving a newborn who was not breathing. According to a probable cause document accessed by Oxygen, authorities discovered a 7-week-old baby boy inside Jenkins’ Baytown residence. The infant, found naked on a mattress, showed no signs of life, with pink fluid emerging from his mouth.
According to the affidavit, Jenkins informed paramedics that he had been looking after his son while the child’s mother visited a relative. He recounted that he had put the baby to sleep around 8 p.m., only to later find him unresponsive.
The baby was transported to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a brain bleed and cardiac arrest. He died seven days later.
Jenkins initially said he stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and when he returned, his son wasn’t breathing. Later, he said he accidentally dropped the boy while feeding him. Then, he reported dropping him on his head while removing him from the bath.
On August 5, police returned to Jenkins’ home and brought a SUIDI doll (Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Investigation) and asked him to demonstrate how he handled his son.
“I end up taking it and just,” he said, according to the affidavit, “Can I throw this?”
Police wrote that Jenkins then threw the doll onto a couch, saying, “That’s how it bounced, just like that. Rolled here, under here,” while pointing with his foot toward a chair next to the couch.
Later, in another demonstration described in the affidavit, Jenkins threw the doll onto a bed, noting it bounced off and “flipped away over there” while pointing to the floor on the opposite side of the bed.
“I guess he bounced so high,” Jenkins said in the affidavit, “he bounced all the way to the other side.”
According to investigators, Jenkins also said the baby had been crying a lot.
“I guess my mind…guess there was too much crying in my mind, just clicked,” Jenkins said, according to police in the affidavit. Jenkins added that he didn’t understand what had happened until he “came back to his senses.”
“I guess he got to trippin,’” Jenkins said, according to the affidavit, “I guess my mind just lost…I lost my freaking head and took him, picked him up, see if he wanted the rest of the bottle but he did not want the rest of the bottle.”
Jenkins said he believed that his son was unconscious when he picked him up and shook him slightly to see whether he was alive, per the affidavit.
Jenkins’ next court date is scheduled for May 11.