"Baby John" HEINRICH - 2 Months - Somewhere VA

A Virginia man charged with eight felonies on charges of severely
hurting his 2-month-old son is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.According
to law enforcement officials, the infant suffered several broken bones —
including a femur — and other injuries at the hands of Christopher
Warren Heinrich, 24.

Heinrich is charged with four counts of
assault, two counts of malicious punishment of a child resulting in
substantial bodily harm, and one count each of malicious punishment of a
child and felony neglect of a child. He pleaded not guilty on March 7.
He is being held in the St. Louis County Jail on $10,000 bail. A trial
has not been scheduled.According to the criminal complaint:Virginia
Regional Medical Center emergency room personnel informed police on
Aug. 14 they were treating the child for a spiral fracture of his left
femur. Workers told police such an injury is uncommon in infants because
of their immobility.Heinrich said he believed the leg may have
been broken three weeks before while he was feeding the baby. The infant
leaned back and almost fell out of his hands, and Heinrich said he
grabbed him by the leg.“I’m a little clumsy,” Heinrich told investigators.Medical
workers, however, told investigators that the break was not weeks old.
They also found evidence of eight or nine healing fractures and bruising
on different parts of the infant’s body.The child’s mother told investigators that “all these injuries occurred when I wasn’t around.”She
“indicated that Christopher Heinrich had stated in the past that he
“hated” the baby when the baby was crabby or would not stop crying,” the
complaint said.The couple brought the infant to the emergency
room for the broken femur on a day that Heinrich had had to get out of
bed about 7 a.m. after the infant woke and started crying. According to
the complaint, four days later an investigator advised Heinrich to give
any reasonable explanation for the infant’s injuries, “but he was unable
to do so.”The next day a child protection hearing was held, and the infant was placed in foster care.Heinrich
is scheduled for an omnibus hearing on the child-assault case and a
related misdemeanor domestic assault case in St. Louis County District
Court at 11 a.m. Wednesday.According to the police report in the
domestic abuse case, the infant’s mother had left Heinrich after he was
charged with abusing their son. She told police that during a visit on
Oct. 28, she and Heinrich began arguing, and Heinrich smashed items in
the apartment and choked her. She said she dug her fingernails in his
forearm and kicked him in the groin to make him stop.During the fight, the report said, Heinrich “was blaming her and her family for him being charged with their child’s injuries.”
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