A Wisconsin man is in custody after allegedly throwing an 8-month-old baby boy against a wall in a Milwaukee home over a basketball-themed video game.
According to court records, Jalin A. White, 20, is facing charges of child abuse with great bodily harm and child neglect. He’s in the Milwaukee County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
Prosecutors described the alleged abuse during White’s initial appearance before Milwaukee County Court Commissioner Andrea Bolender.
“You stated that he hit the wall hard. “You heard the bang of the wall,” Bolender told White, according to a courtroom report by local ABC affiliate WISN.
The child is in the hospital, but authorities do not expect him to survive.
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According to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime, the incident occurred Tuesday at White’s home in the 7000 block of 42nd Street, near Good Hope Road in north Milwaukee.
According to police, White and the boy’s mother rent a room in the home her parents own. She went to work and left the boy with White, who is unemployed and takes care of him full-time.
The boy, identified in the complaint as JW, was in good health when his mother returned home from work that day, but she allegedly went out again to buy some marijuana, detectives stated. White was watching the child as he played video games.
When the mother returned, she found the boy in his playpen “making noises,” according to the affidavit. He was barely breathing and his right arm was “twitching,” according to the complaint.
The mother picked him up, and White allegedly “angrily” asked where she was going and if she could give him the baby, she later told detectives. She took the boy to her father, who instructed her to call 911.
According to the complaint, doctors at the hospital diagnosed the boy with skull fractures, six broken ribs, and a healing broken collarbone. They don’t think the boy will survive his injuries.
Following his Miranda warnings, White provided various accounts of how the boy may have sustained the injuries, including the possibility that he fell from an air mattress onto the carpeted floor.
However, none of White’s explanations could account for the severity of his son’s injuries, according to cops. Eventually, he admitted to throwing the boy against the wall, according to the complaint.
“My son hit his head against the wall. “He hit his head hard against the wall, bro,” White allegedly said. “I heard a wall… “It was a loud, hard wall.”
White then told detectives that he was playing the video game NBA2K and became frustrated when he was down two points in the fourth quarter, prompting him to throw the boy against a wall.
“This is a severe level of violence for an innocent, infant child,” Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Madeline Witte allegedly stated.
White reportedly shook his head and wiped away tears during the hearing.
“The medical personnel have indicated that this child, sadly, is not expected to live, in which case these charges will be increased to homicide,” Bolender said, according to a video from Madison ABC affiliate WKOW.
According to WISN, White could face more than 60 years in prison if convicted of child abuse, and up to life if the boy dies and the charges are upgraded to homicide. White has a court hearing scheduled for Friday.
According to the complaint, the victim’s mother is also facing charges, but these details were not immediately available.
