Man accused of causing ‘significant head trauma’ to 7-week-old baby

BELOIT, Wis. — A Beloit man is facing multiple charges in the case of a baby who suffered significant injuries this week causing him to be brain dead, according to a court document.

A criminal complaint was filed in Rock County court Wednesday accusing 32-year-old Deanthony Cardell Hodges of neglecting and causing great bodily harm to his infant son.

According to the complaint, Beloit police responded to a report at 1:58 p.m. Monday of a baby who didn’t have a pulse and wasn’t breathing in the 700 block of Euclid Avenue.

Beloit Memorial Hospital staff told police that the boy had a pulse but couldn’t breathe on his own. He had bruising on his legs and it appeared blood vessels around his eyes had broken or were bleeding. He also had bleeding in his brain consistent with being attacked.

Hodges sent the baby’s mother, who was working, messages that the boy wasn’t “looking good” and that he needed to go to the hospital, the complaint said. The baby had been alone with him for seven hours. He told police the baby hadn’t fallen while he was watching him, and he said he hadn’t hit the baby.

A Beloit Memorial Hospital doctor told police Monday that the baby’s brain bleeding was caused by “significant head trauma” and he showed no signs of neurological activity and couldn’t breathe on his own, according to the complaint. The boy had a fracture to the back of his skull and needed a blood transfusion. A breathing tube was inserted and he was taken by Life Flight to the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee. Doctors told police Wednesday that the baby was brain dead, and the force needed to cause the injuries he suffered could have come being shaken or slammed.

The doctor told police the baby was “neurologically devastated,” and that if he lives, he will not walk or talk and would be in a “near-vegetative state.”

Hodges was charged with physical abuse of a child by recklessly causing great bodily harm, child neglect resulting in great bodily harm and bail jumping.

Police said at the time of the incident, Hodges was out on bond in connection with domestic abuse charges for an incident on Sept. 3, 2016.

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