A 10-month-old boy in Missouri is still recovering from serious head and body injuries that he is said to have gotten from his mother’s fiancé.
After six weeks in the hospital, a child only known as “Baby Waylon” was released. Police say that the suspect, 28-year-old Jordan L. Boggess, dropped the boy while throwing him in the air and “bear hugged” him until he stopped crying.
His father told Springfield NBC affiliate KYTV that Waylon will always be hurt and needs to learn how to sit up and lift his head.
Tyler Burbridge said, “He has pretty much been reset to a newborn.”
Just before 8 p.m. on September 14, the Newton County Sheriff’s Office was called to a home on Spring Street in Newtonia because a baby was not breathing. When the police and firefighters got there, the boy was not awake but breathing.
A boy was rushed to a hospital in Joplin by paramedics. He was then taken to a children’s hospital in Kansas City. A probable cause arrest affidavit said that when the nursing staff got there, they saw bruises on the boy’s forehead and ear.
Police wrote that doctors did a CT scan on him even though it was “too critical to do a full body x-ray.” The scan showed two small brain bleeds and collapsed lungs. The staff called the police.
The police went to the house and called Boggess, who was sleeping. After being read his Miranda rights, Boggess told the police that he was watching TV in bed when the boy’s mother went to the bathroom.
In his jumper, Boggess said the boy had just thrown up and was screaming. Then, the affidavit said, he said he picked up the boy and started to “throw him in the air” to “comfort him.” Boggess said that the second time he threw Waylon up, he “fell on his head.”
Then Jordan said that he got scared when the child fell to the floor and “bear hugged” the child “a little hard” until he stopped screaming, “the police wrote. “They asked Jordan if it was tight, and he said yes.” Jordan said that when he squeezed him, he might have hurt him.
The affidavit said doctors found that Waylon had “abusive head trauma” and had been abused physically. Boggess was arrested on a felony charge of child abuse. Boggess is still being held in the Newton County Jail without bond.
“He pretty much killed my son.” He took the future of my son. She said, “You do not throw a baby into the air.”
Waylon got out of the hospital on October 24 and is now getting better with his mom.
A statement from Waylon’s mother to KYTV said, “Our main focus is on him as he recovers and as he strives to get stronger.”
