Maria Antonio-Jose, 24, has been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after she admitted to shaking a baby while caring for him. The baby boy died a month later
A six-month-old baby has died a month after he was shaken by his mother’s best friend and left severely brain damaged.
Maria Antonio-Jose, 24, was initially arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse after the boy was hospitalized.
Following the baby’s death, Antonio-Jose was also charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child.
Antonio-Jose had agreed to watch the baby at her home in Bonita Springs, Florida while her best friend went to work on May 15, according to the News-Press.
But around noon Antonio-Jose called her friend at work and said the boy had stopped breathing after choking on milk.
Antonio-Jose, who has two children, also called her own husband while he was at work and said the baby had choked on milk and was no longer breathing.
But the baby’s injuries told a far different story.
Doctors found that the baby had suffered traumatic brain injury, extensive retinal hemorrhaging, and a ripped right retina.
He was diagnosed with a diffused axonal injury, which occurs when the brain rapidly shifts inside the skull.
The baby was in a vegetative state by the time he was taken to the hospital and was transferred to hospice care on June 8. He died on June 19.
At first Antonio-Jose stuck to her story, once again telling investigators that the baby boy had choked on milk.
But once they showed her proof that the baby’s injuries were not consistent with her story, Antonio-Jose admitted she wasn’t telling the truth.
Antonio-Jose told detectives from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office that she shook the baby for two minutes until he stopped breathing.
Jesus Francisco (pictured), the baby boy’s father, said he can’t put blame on Antonio-Jose for his son’s death because she is his wife’s best friend
She said the baby had been crying uncontrollably and she became frustrated and lost control, adding that she never meant to hurt him.
Antonio-Jose used a baby doll to demonstrate how she shook the child back and forth to try and get him to stop crying.
She was arrested on June 9 and is currently being held on $200,000 bond.
A child protection investigation has also been opened by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
The department said it has had no prior involvement with either the child or Antonio-Jose.
Before the boy died, his father Jesus Francisco said it already felt as if he had lost his firstborn.
‘I look at his little crib, or where he played with his toys, my son isn’t here anymore,’ Francisco told NBC 2.
‘It’s really sad and difficult as a father. It hurts me a lot because my son is so loving.’
But Francisco said it also pained him to see Antonio-Jose’s children without their mother.
‘I can’t judge her and I can’t put blame on her,’ he said. ‘Because in reality she is my wife’s best friend.’