Inset: Curtis Jenkins (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department). Background: The apartment complex where Jenkins allegedly fatally abused his daughter in Indianapolis, Ind. (Google Maps).
An Indiana man is behind bars for killing his infant daughter the very first time he was alone with her, Hoosier State police say.
Curtis Jenkins, 24, stands accused of a preliminary murder charge, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
The underlying incident occurred Saturday afternoon at a residence on Station Street in northeast Indianapolis.
On July 18, at around 12:40 p.m., officers were called for a welfare check on the 3-month-old, according to court documents obtained by Indianapolis-based NBC affiliate WTHR. When police and paramedics arrived, the defendant allegedly said his daughter probably "got too hot in the car" because it does not have air conditioning.
Jenkins said he and the child were driving around that day and when he noticed she was overheating, he tried to give her water, according to court documents obtained by local Fox affiliate WXIN.
The child was then transported to Riley Hospital for Children, where she clung to life for several days. On July 21, she died.
The father said he called 911 after realizing the baby was not breathing normally, according to law enforcement. A doctor at the hospital, however, said the infant suffered three separate brain bleeds, hemorrhages in her retinas, and broken ribs, as well as "too many hemorrhages to count" in her spine, court documents say.
Those injuries, doctors said, were not consistent with a hot car death.
During an interview, the father said he "did not know what happened to her," according to the court documents.
"[Jenkins said] that if he found out who put their hands on his baby, he would murder them," the documents read. "He stated that he would never put his hands on his (children) and that he would never hurt them."
After Jenkins requested a lawyer, police stopped interviewing him.
As the investigation continued, police obtained security camera footage from the apartment complex. Police allege Jenkins himself also reached out to the property manager for the footage in question.
The video allegedly shows the father yelling at the infant while she cries, the father "loudly and angrily" telling the baby to "shut up," and repeatedly shouting at her to "shut up," police said.
The camera also captures various thuds and smacking sounds and what authorities described as the sound of a car seat being dropped, according to law enforcement. At one point, authorities describe a full minute of what sounds like "cries of pain" as well as "strange noises that almost sounds like sucking coming from the apartment."
"You keep crying," Jenkins allegedly tells the child at one point in the surveillance footage. "I don't want to deal with you."
Later on, the defendant allegedly shouted the little girl's name "as if he were attempting to rouse her," and then said, "Oh, s—."
Investigators later spoke with the victim's mother, who said she was reluctant to leave her baby with Jenkins because "there have been DCS investigations involving his other children."
This was the only time Jenkins had ever been alone with the baby, the mother said.
In a video shared with investigators by the mother, the little girl appeared healthy just before Jenkins came to pick her up, police said.
The mother went on to say that Jenkins had previously told her to get Plan B or an abortion, according to law enforcement.
The defendant is currently detained in the Marion County Jail awaiting a formal charging decision by local prosecutors, police said.
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