Police: "Severe" trauma inflicted on infant

A Taylorsville man is accused of abusing a 2-month-old infant, causing bleeding in the child's brain and retinas along with other injuries.

In charges filed Tuesday, police wrote that the 27-year-old man claimed to have come in from mowing the lawn Aug. 11 to find the baby screaming. He said he placed the baby on a countertop and said he looked gray, his eyes were rolled into his head and he was struggling to breathe, police wrote.

An ambulance took the baby to Primary Children's Medical Center, where a doctor reported that a CT scan and MRI showed a subdural hemorrhage. The infant, identified only as "T.O.," also suffered "diffuse, multi-layer, vision-threatening retinal hemorrhages," police wrote. The baby also had bruises on his cheek and arm, police wrote.

A month earlier, another pediatrician had noticed bruising on the infant's face during an exam, police wrote. The baby's parents said the baby pinched and grabbed himself, and he had the bruises since birth.

But doctors said the August injuries were consistent with severe, abusive trauma and could not have been self-inflicted by a non-mobile 2-month-old. Doctors said the trauma likely was inflicted shortly before the baby became symptomatic.

The man was charged with second-degree felony child abuse and four misdemeanor counts of child abuse.

ealberty@sltrib.com

Twitter: @erinalberty