After Codey Jolley put his 18-month-old step-son in the bathtub, he told police, he got sidetracked with household chores.
He said he loaded the dishwasher.
He said he cleaned the living room.
He said he microwaved a burrito.
When he remembered he was supposed to be bathing the boy Friday night, he told police, he went to the bathroom – where he found the infant floating face-down in lukewarm water, according to a probable cause statement.
The child, Ethan Antes, died Sunday from his injuries after police said his step-father drowned him in the bathtub while his mother was at work.
“Our hearts go out to baby Ethan’s family as they deal with this tragic loss,” Lt. Lex Bell, with the Salt Lake County’s Unified Police Department, said in a statement.
Jolley, 28, from Millcreek, Utah, was arrested on an attempted child abuse homicide charge. Authorities suspect the charge will be increased to child abuse homicide now that the child has died.
Police said officers responded Friday night to the home in Millcreek, outside Salt Lake City, to a call about an infant face-down in a bathtub.
Paramedics were able to find the Ethan’s pulse and flew him to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, where he was listed in critical condition, police said. But Ethan died Sunday morning.
After hearing Jolley’s account, authorities booked him on attempted child abuse homicide. But police said doctors told them that the child’s injuries were not consistent with an accidental drowning incident.
The probable cause statement from Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office said the child’s injuries indicated repeated child abuse.
During the investigation, authorities said that they discovered that the child had spilled hot coffee on his head and upper body some three weeks before the drowning – sustaining first- and second-degree burns.
“The incident was witnessed by Codey Jolley and he was the only one home with the child,” according to the statement.
Days before the drowning, Jolley told police, the child fell from his highchair while he was in Jolley’s care and slammed his head on the table – bruising the side of his face, according to the probable cause statement.
On Friday, Jolley told police that when he found the boy unresponsive in the bathtub, drained the water, he pulled him out and put him in the hallway, and attempted CPR.
He told police “he did not know what he was doing” so he called 911, according to the probable cause statement.
A GoFundMe page, which has been set up for Ethan to help the family with medical bills as well as the boy’s burial services and headstone.
“This family is so sweet,” a family friend wrote on the website, “and this baby boy deserves the best for what he has been through.”
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Lindsey Bever
