Inset: Ashton G. Lewis (Sebastian County Sheriff's Office). Background: The Sebastian County Sheriff's Office in Arkansas (Google Maps).
A 24-year-old father in Arkansas is accused of severely abusing his 7-week-old son, allegedly "squeezing" the infant's legs until he heard a "breaking sound" and fracturing both of the infant's femurs.
Ashton Grant Lewis was taken into custody and charged with one count of felony second-degree domestic battery, court records show.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed in Sebastian County, officers with the Fort Smith Police Department on Sept. 15 responded to a report of possible child abuse at a local children's hospital. The victim, who was brought in by both parents, had suffered a bilateral oblique fracture across both femurs, which is essentially a single break that runs across the left and right leg.
Lewis allegedly told the medical staff that he "dropped" the newborn from his arms and the baby landed on the bedroom mattress. But doctors immediately were skeptical of that explanation, saying it was "implausible due to the amount of force needed to break both femurs not being possible from a small drop onto a soft surface."
The victim's mother told investigators she got up in the middle of the night and gave the newborn to Lewis so she could go to the bathroom. She said she was gone for about four minutes when she heard the baby "scream" and she rushed back into the room.
Lewis told the mother he had "accidentally dropped" the victim onto the mattress. The parents monitored the baby and eventually decided to take him to the hospital due to "continued pain and fussiness."
As detectives continued to question Lewis about what happened, he allegedly "eventually admitted to them that he did not drop the victim" while the mother was in the bathroom.
He initially claimed he was "bouncing the victim on the bed" with one hand on the child's front and the other on his back. He allegedly said the injury happened because "the last bounce was particularly hard."
Police then confronted Lewis with X-rays of his son's injuries and told him that the actions he had described would "not generate enough force to break both of the victim's legs." Lewis then allegedly admitted to squeezing the baby's legs until they broke because the child was being fussy.
"Lewis stated that while the victim was laying on the bed, he began to squeeze the victim's thighs in the middle of his legs, and that he squeezed too tight," the affidavit states. "When he was asked why, Lewis stated that he thought it would calm the victim, who was upset at the time. Lewis stated he did not mean to squeeze too hard but at some point while squeezing the victim's legs, he heard a breaking sound and then the victim began to scream and cry and [the victim's mother] returned to the room."
Doctors confirmed that high-pressure squeezing of the legs was a "plausible mechanism" to generate the force necessary to break both of the victim's femurs.
An arrest warrant was issued Oct. 7, and Lewis was arrested Oct. 12. He was booked into the Sebastian County Detention Center and released after posting $25,000 bond. As conditions of his release, Lewis may not have any contact with the victim or the victim's mother without prior authorization.
A judge scheduled Lewis' trial to begin March 8, 2027, records show.
Follow Law&Crime:
Comments