Sentenced: Michael Crook Jr., Left 4MO Son Fighting For His Life After Shaking Him

[Sugar Cookie]

A Muncie infant is battling for his life in an Indianapolis hospital after being severely shaken by his father, city police said.

Michael Dwayne Crook Jr., 26, was arrested Wednesday, preliminarily charged with aggravated battery, neglect of a dependent and obstruction of justice.

Emergency medical personnel were called to a home after Crook reported his son, who is four months old, had started to choke and stopped breathing.

The baby was taken to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, and later transferred to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where he continued to be treated – and was reportedly listed in critical condition – on Thursday.

According to a report by city police investigator Kristofer Swanson, Riley physicians said the boy was suffering from a severe brain bleed and hemorrhages in his eyes, and also had swelling in his neck ligaments.

A team of Riley physicians specializing in child abuse said the baby’s injuries “would have resulted from violent acceleration-deceleration” and “would have required an amount of force that a reasonable caregiver would clearly recognized as dangerous to an 11-pound infant.”

On the day the baby was hospitalized, Crook told authorities his son, at the home of the baby’s mother, was being watched by a baby sitter when he arrived that morning for a visit.

The Muncie man said he burped the infant, who a short time later “began to choke and stopped breathing.” Crook said he then called 911 and twice revived the infant by performing CPR.

On Wednesday, investigators interviewed both Crook and the baby’s 28-year-old mother.

She said Crook had spent the night of Jan. 16-17 at her home, and was “angry” that morning when she woke him up to watch the infant so she could leave for work.

According to Swanson’s report, Crook on Wednesday admitted he became frustrated with the baby after the mother left for work, and “shook him to try and get him to stop crying.”

The father said he then placed the child in a baby seat, and the infant began to vomit. He said when he picked the baby up “to clear his airway,” he noticed (the boy) had stopped breathing and no longer had a heartbeat.”

Crook – is also preliminarily charged with being a habitual offender.

http://www.thestarpress.com/story/n...-arrested-shaken-baby-fights-life/1087061001/

 

[Sejanus]

Bolt him to a mechanical bull.
Run it on high until his brain matter liquifies.

He looks like one of the old sideshow half-man/half-woman freaks.
Cage him.

 

[cubby]

Poor little guy, all he wanted was something to eat and his nappie changed.

 

[Prettypink513]

Well...he won't be going back to school either

 

[Stormcloud]

Babies. Cry. It's. Not. Fucking. Rocket. Science.

Yet another moron. Just... line them up in rows and drill them all with the same bullet... -_-

 

[SchruteFarms]

So many children abused in Indiana. I was there 35 years and unfortunately it fits.

 

[mybum62]

It appears Muncie police have been busy saving the lives of infants. Not an easy job. The city needs to campaign against child abuse. I believe all parents should have to take parenting classes before leaving the hospital with newborns. I'm so surprised it hasn't been added yet. Although there are many other things they teach new parents...that is not one of them. Some of them just might catch on and refrain from the abuse. This makes me so sad...reading article after article about these infants losing their vision, their motor skills diminished to the point they need life long care or are unable to reach milestones they otherwise would have. Sets them up for lives of disability. The judges need to treat these offenders severely. Make an example of them. Rant over for now. Love you all!

 

[Sue sue]

Public defender J. Thomas Hurley said he and his client had fully anticipated a 20-year sentence would be imposed “because (Crook) did something horrible.”

“Does that make him a horrible person?” Hurley asked. “I’m not going to judge him.”

In imposing the 20-year prison term, Vorhees referred to the child’s “permanent, life-altering” injuries.

The judge imposed a 14-year sentence for the battery conviction, and added six years as the habitual offender penalty.

Yes it does!!!!!

 

[Sugar Cookie]

A Muncie man whose shaking of his infant son caused “permanent, life-altering” injuries was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Michael Dewayne Crook Jr., 26, had pleaded guilty May 23 to aggravated battery and also acknowledged being a habitual offender.

Crook was arrested in early February, about two weeks after he shook the baby, at the time four months old, in the home of the child’s mother.

At the sentencing hearing, Tara Harris – a child abuse pediatrician at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis – told Delaware Circuit Court 1 Judge Marianne Vorhees that “abusive head trauma” had left the young victim with extensive brain injuries and “massive retinal hemorrhages.”

The baby, now almost 10 months old, is on a feeding tube due to difficulties swallowing, and has at best extremely limited vision, the physician said.

“Unfortunately, the skills he now has are the skills he’ll have the rest of his life,” Harris said, adding the child is “profoundly impaired” and has “an extremely poor prognosis.”

The baby’s mother testified she believed her son was “doing a lot better,” and said she hoped Crook would “get the help that he needs” while incarcerated.

She acknowledged Crook had not wanted to get up and care for their son the morning the baby was injured, saying the defendant was not a “morning person.”

The mother brought the victim in the case – who is in foster care – to his father's sentencing hearing.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Eric Hoffman repeatedly asked Crook to show him with his hands the amount of force he had used in shaking his son.

Crook maintained he could not recall.

Hoffman asked Vorhees to impose a 20-year sentence, the maximum allowed under the terms of a plea agreement.

Public defender J. Thomas Hurley said he and his client had fully anticipated a 20-year sentence would be imposed “because (Crook) did something horrible.”

“Does that make him a horrible person?” Hurley asked. “I’m not going to judge him.”

In imposing the 20-year prison term, Vorhees referred to the child’s “permanent, life-altering” injuries.

The judge imposed a 14-year sentence for the battery conviction, and added six years as the habitual offender penalty.

In an interview with a Muncie police investigator the day he was arrested, Crook admitted he had shaken the infant "to try to get him to stop crying."

Another infant son of Crook died, of shaking-related injuries, in Arkansas in 2013. The father has not been accused of causing that death.

After the hearing, Hoffman had harsh words for the defendant.

"Mr. Crook has shown no remorse whatsover for what he has done," the chief deputy prosecutor said. "If I were him, I would have hid my head in a bag out of shame and disgust for what I had done to my own child.

"But not him. He just sat there like it was just another day in court."

Muncie man gets 20 years for shaken baby's 'life-altering' injuries

A Muncie man whose shaking of his infant son caused "permanent, life-altering” injuries was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison.

www.thestarpress.com

MICHAEL D CROOK JR

Earliest Possible Release Date* 12/24/2033