Foster father charged with shaking infant boy to death

A 24-year-old foster father from Oklahoma has been charged with murder for allegedly shaking a two-month-old baby boy to death, less than a day after taking the infant into his home.

According to the Oklahoma City Police Department, officers responded to Children’s Hospital at Oklahoma University Medical Center at around 3pm on October 8 after getting a report about baby Jacob Thomas, who was brought there earlier that day.

The child was found not breathing in the home of his new foster father, Austin Davis, on Northwest 89th Street at around 9am, according to an arrest affidavit.

 

Foster dad: Foster father Austin Davis, 24 (left), has been charged with first-degree murder in the shaking death of two-month-old Jacob Thomas (right), who was in his care  

Jacob’s birth parents, Matt Grimes and Sandra Thompson, said the state had taken Jacob and their other children away from them because they had ‘problems’ 

Hospital staff told officers the infant had what appeared to be injuries consistent with possible signs of child abuse, specifically, ‘shaken baby syndrome.’

A doctor reportedly told a detective that Jacob’s injuries were so severe that ‘he will never recover.’

When police interviewed the mortally injured baby’s foster dad, Davis reportedly confessed to shaking him while telling him ‘just stop’ because the two-month-old was crying, reported NewsOK.

Police said the 24-year-old suspect also re-enacted for them how he shook the boy.

The incident took place less than 24 hours after Davis took Thomas into his care.

Davis, who was apparently linked to the Indian Child Welfare program for the Choctaw Nation, was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail last Thursday on a single count of child abuse.

The following day, baby Jacob succumbed to his injuries, leading to Davis’ abuse charge being upgraded to first-degree murder. He is being held without bond.

This week, Jacob’s biological parents, Matt Grimes and Sandra Thompson, spoke to News9 about their son’s death, lamenting that Choctaw Nation had removed him from his first foster home, where he was ‘healthy and happy,’ and had given him to Davis.

Davis reportedly confessed to shaking Jacob because he would not stop crying, less than 24 hours after Choctaw Nation had placed him in his care 

Boy’s birth parents say the infant suffered a broken neck and bleeding in his brain

‘They took our baby to protect him from us and then failed miserably in protecting him themselves,’ Grimes said.

Jacob was born prematurely and spent the first two weeks with his birth mother in the NICU. He was then immediately placed in the first foster home, which was under the auspices of the Department of Human Services. 

DHS told KFOR that under the Indian Child Welfare Act, if a child has any tribal blood, he or she must be given to that tribe’s welfare program.

Grimes and Thompson conceded that they had ‘problems,’ but denied that Jacob or their older children were ever in any danger. 

The biological parents were summoned to the hospital on October 8, to find their son clinging to life, having suffered a broken neck and bleeding in the brain, according to the couple. 

‘The brain injuries he sustained were so severe he was pretty much gone at that point,’ Grimes said. ‘We got to say goodbye to his physical body but as far as our baby laying there at that point, not really.’  

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk