OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – An Oshkosh man has been charged with first-degree reckless homicide for a 10-month-old’s death.
Freddy Colon, 34, appeared in Winnebago County Court Tuesday afternoon.
According to the criminal complaint, the child’s mother was renting a room from Colon.
In the complaint, Colon told authorities he found the boy face-down in vomit. It states he called the infant’s mother.
The document says an exam found evidence of abuse, such as bruises on the brain and bleeding behind an eye.
The complaint also states Colon’s four-year-old son told police his dad spanked the baby because the child was always crying.
That case marks the third child death in Oshkosh in just three weeks.
In one of those two other cases, Cory Lyons, was also charged with murder in his two-month-old son’s death.
“If there are any two factors that seem to be at the heart of any crime against children, whether it be physical, sexual or otherwise, it’s really selfishness, in my opinion, and a lack of empathy for the child,” Winnebago County deputy district attorney Scott Ceman said.
The cases against Colon and Lyons have a big similarity: brain scans from the children showed evidence of child abuse.
The injuries are consistent with Abusive Head Trauma, or Shaken Baby Syndrome.
“People shake babies, mostly it’s out of frustration, because they cannot console, and they don’t have the coping skills,” Outagamie County Health and Human Services division manager Melissa Blom said. “Typically, it’s an impulsive act.”
In 2016, there were more than 160 child abusive head trauma allegations made in the state.
Child Protective Services substantiated about a third of those and, more often than not, the alleged abuser was the child’s parent.
Still, Blom said, it’s not easy to profile a maltreater.
“It only takes an instance to injure a child or to lose control or get frustrated, but a lot of times it is someone in the household,” she said.
According to Blom, shaken baby abuse usually happens when people get overwhelmed with a child and don’t know how to control it.
She said men also tend to get fewer resources for childcare than women.
“One child protective services system can’t do it all, we really need to come together as a community and offer support and connection, so parents have a place to go and have someone to talk to when they are feeling stressed.”
Both Colon and Lyons are scheduled to be back in court in January.
