MORRIES HILL Jr - 5 months - New Haven CT

A 19-year-old city man has been charged with risk of injury to a minor in connection with the 2008 death of his 5-month-old son.

Morries
D. Hill Sr., of 528 Eastern St., was arraigned on the charge Wednesday.
A Superior Court judge kept his bail at $200,000, which Hill did not
post.

Police Lt. Julie Johnson, who heads the department’s
Special Investigations Unit, said despite the arrest, the investigation
remains open and active. The child’s death is a homicide, and no one to
date has been charged in the killing, which a doctor attributed to
“severe physical abuse.”

“By no means is this case closed
because of this arrest,” Johnson said. “This case will remain open
until we have enough evidence to charge someone” with the homicide.

Hill
was picked up by New Haven Officer John Palmer and members of the U.S.
Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force Tuesday at the Target store in Milford,
where Hill works.

The arrest came 15 months after Morries Hill
Jr. was found unresponsive in the home that Hill shares with his mother
and brother.

Court records released Wednesday provide a
disturbing account of the child’s injuries. The baby was alive, but
unresponsive, when he arrived at the Yale Pediatric Emergency Room the
morning of Aug. 4, 2008.

Later in the day, a doctor told a
Department of Children and Families social worker that the baby
wouldn’t survive due to his injuries, which included a lacerated liver,
spleen, pancreas and kidneys. He also had retinal hemorrhaging and
significant brain injury, the arrest warrant affidavit says. The doctor
also noted seven rib fractures, some of which appeared to be old.

The
probable cause for the warrant largely was based on medical opinions
from doctors and statements made by Hill and his brother.

Medical
staff concluded the fatal injuries were inflicted between 11 p.m. Aug.
3 and the morning of Aug. 4, when police say Hill and his then
13-year-old brother were the only people home. Their mother worked the
night shift and wasn’t there, police said.

With two people
present, however, detectives have the challenge of determining who
allegedly inflicted the fatal injuries. That would be key in a
manslaughter or murder case, but matters less in a risk of injury case.

Under
that statute, a person is guilty of risk of injury to a child if he
“causes or permits” a child to be put in a situation where the child is
endangered. That means even if authorities can’t conclusively show it
was Hill who hurt the baby, he could still be found guilty if they can
prove he knew the child’s safety was at risk.

The young father
told detectives nothing happened to the child, who lived with his
mother and was visiting the Hills when he died.

The younger
brother told a DCF worker the child was in a bedroom that night and,
when he cried, Hill would go into the room and the infant would stop.
Hill also told a hospital social worker he was the only one who had
access to the child, according to police.

Detective Tammi Means worked on the case from the start, and “never put it on a shelf,” Johnson said.

“It
was a tough case from the beginning because the child, at five months
old, obviously can’t tell us what happened to him, and the only two
people in the house really didn’t give us much cooperation. After
several days, they stopped cooperating with the investigation.”

Hill
has no criminal record. His attorney, Robert Berke, described him as a
young father who adored his child and “adamantly denies” the
allegations that led to his arrest. A lot of different people helped
take care of the child, the attorney said.

“I certainly would
like to have the opportunity to have my own forensic experts examine
the medical records and autopsy to determine the time of injury, which
appear to be the critical issue,” he said Wednesday.

No one answered the door at 528 Eastern St. Wednesday, and there was no sign of activity.