Robert T. Hughes and Erin Murray left their 4-month-old son Burnette in her 11-year-old son’s care, court documents allege.
If the kid watched the baby overnight, Murray let him play X-Box. That night, when Burnette cried, the other boy took him from the baby swing. He tried to feed him a bottle, before he put the baby on his chest on the sofa.
At some point, the boy fell asleep, rolled onto the baby — smothering him.
A month after that calamity, Hughes called an Indiana Department of Child Services caseworker, saying he got a recorded confession from the older boy. Police said he beat the kid in a garage.
Hughes, now 52, is on trial this week.
He was charged on Dec. 14, 2020 with neglect of a dependent resulting in death, a Level 1 felony; neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, a Level 5 felony; and battery resulting in bodily injury to a person under 14, a Level 5 felony. He has pleaded not guilty.
Deputy Prosecutor Keith Anderson said Tuesday in opening arguments Hughes was neglectful by leaving a premature baby that just got home from the neonatal intensive care unit in the hands of another child.
Hughes compounded the situation by later beating the older boy, Anderson said.
Defense lawyer Russell Brown argued the baby’s death was a “tragic accident.” The question for jurors was if Hughes “knowingly” placed the infant in danger, he said.
Court records show Murray’s trial is now set to start July 22. She is charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death, a level 1 felony, and neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, a level 5 felony.
Merrillville Police responded at 8:35 p.m. Aug. 9, 2020 to their home on the 6100 block of Pennsylvania Street. The baby was lying on the floor.
He was already cold to the touch. Paramedics told Hughes and Murray there was nothing they could do. The child was born at 28 weeks and got home about a month earlier from the NICU.
Murray told an Indiana Department of Child Services investigator that when she woke up to check the baby in a swing, the older boy, 11, was “panicking,” documents show.
The boy was “frightened” of his stepfather, Hughes, court documents show. Since the baby’s death, Hughes “blamed” and was “always watching” him. It was very hard for the boy to be at home, he told investigators.
He told investigators Hughes and Murray left him to watch the baby before. During times he couldn’t get the baby to stop crying, the couple would scream at him and tell him to make a bottle. They never came upstairs to check on the baby, he alleged.
His sister told investigators the boy volunteered some nights to play video games, but it quickly became his responsibility. Caring for the baby shouldn’t have been on them, she said.
Hughes called DCS on Sept. 10, 2020 with several tape recordings. The last one was “over an hour” where a case worker heard “smacking,” “punching,” “crying,” and “screaming”.
The boy later said Hughes dragged him by the hair to the garage for two hours where he beat him in the face and abdomen. Hughes demanded the boy admit he did it — at one point going to get a kitchen knife, telling the boy he could kill him if he wanted.
Murray only intervened at the end.
“Leave him alone, he’s just a kid,” she said.
