When a 5-month-old boy wouldn’t stop crying in the night, the child’s father dropped the infant to the floor, struck him across the face and slammed the baby onto a changing table, causing the
child’s death, according to a charging affidavit.
The boy’s father, Calib J. Scott, 23, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and child neglect causing great harm.
After investigators responded to the trailer home they discovered a horrific case of abuse, according to the charging affidavit. The child had bruises in several stages of healing as well as open sores and cuts around the nose, mouth and face, according to the charging affidavit. The baby also had what appeared to be a fresh circular burn to the inside of his right ear, the affidavit said. Investigators suspect the burn was made by a cigarette.
Scott called 9-1-1 after he noticed the child was having difficulty breathing. Paramedics and police responded. The child was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach and pronounced dead.
“My son, he’s, ah, he’s gone rag doll, basically, and he’s barely breathing,” Scott said. “And his eyes they won’t dilate.”
He said he went to change his son when he noticed he was in distress.
“I was changing him and when I picked him up he just rag dolled,” Scott said. “I don’t know how to explain it.”
He said in the 9-1-1 that the boy’s name was Daemon and that he was born on Jan. 15.
And Scott said that on Monday a dog had knocked over a box fan in the apartment and it landed on the boy, who suffered bruises to his forehead and cheek.
Scott was the primary caregiver for the child and the sole caretaker, according to the charging affidavit. In the 9-1-1, he said his wife had gone to work.
Scott told investigators that he became enraged by his son’s continuous crying and “pleaded” with the infant to stop, the affidavit states. When the child didn’t, Scott, who is 5 feet 11 inches tall, picked up the infant and dropped the child, who fell from a height of more than 3 feet and landed head first, the affidavit said.
Scott then picked his son up by the neck with the full weight of its body “freely hanging,” the report said. Scott dropped the infant on the bed and propped the child up on a pillow.
The child began to cry again then after again pleading for an end to the crying Scott then used “extreme force to slap / strike” his son across the face, the report states. He left the child on the bed and went to smoke a cigarette in the bathroom.
Scott then returned to the bedroom, picked his son up and slammed him onto a changing table, the affidavit states. The back of the child’s head struck the changing table and the child went limp.
Scott realized the boy was having difficulty breathing. He tried to resuscitate the child but failed and called 9-1-1, the report states.
An autopsy found that the child suffered a “subdural hematoma,” according to the charging affidavit. A subdural hematoma is bleeding on the brain often caused by a severe head injury. The boy was also suffering from dehydration.
Scott told investigators that the injuries to his son’s face happened about two weeks earlier and that while they were sufficient to need medical attention neither he nor the child’s mother sought medical treatment for the infant.