Five-Month-Old Shaken To Death, Mother’s Boyfriend Charged With Murder

A 23-year-old man was arrested for first-degree murder on Wednesday in Metairie, Louisiana, after his girlfriend’s five-month-old baby died of “Shaken Baby Syndrome”.

The investigators were initially called to Noe Martinez-Florez’s residence in 900 Block of Aurora Avenue on Sept. 18 to report an unresponsive infant, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said Wednesday.

The deputies performed CPR and the infant was immediately transferred to a local hospital. After the condition of the baby stabilized, he was taken to another local hospital for intensive care. The hospital reported a case of “Shaken Baby Syndrome” to the sheriff’s office on Sept. 19 and added that the baby had injuries consistent with the same.

The child, unfortunately, succumbed to the injuries after two days. An autopsy conducted on Sept. 23 revealed that the cause of the infant’s death was a homicide.

Martinez-Florez was found responsible for the child’s injury and was arrested Wednesday with a warrant. Investigators concluded that the child’s mother was in no way responsible for the injuries to the baby.

According to Dr. Leah Douglas with LCMC Children’s Hospital, almost 1,200 children in the U.S. visit hospitals for extreme cases of “shaken baby syndrome” each year, out of which 80 die.

In a similar incident earlier this month an 18-month-old from Blount County, Tennessee, succumbed to injuries three days after he was gravely injured in the care of his mother’s boyfriend. The initial investigations and reports on the case suggested that the baby had choked and fallen to the floor while the mother went to the washroom.

But further inquiry revealed an irregularity in the couple’s story, leading to further questioning. The records stated that the boy was a “victim of severe battering and shaking injury”. The man later confessed that the baby had pulled on his chest hair and he let go of the child, injuring him.