A 22-year-old Maryland man who was frustrated with his crying 5-month-old son killed the boy by covering his mouth and shaking him, police and prosecutors said Monday.
Austin Ahimbisibwe, of Germantown, was ordered held on $2.5 million bond on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse resulting in death during a brief hearing in Montgomery County District Court. Also at the hearing was the child’s mother, sobbing in the front row as details of the alleged crime were aired.
“All I can say is I miss my son terribly,” the mother, Lauren Felitti, said in a brief Facebook messaging exchange after court. “I ache for him every second of the day. And I love him with all my heart.”
Felitti’s Facebook page is in large part a tribute to her son Hudson, with a “Dear Son In Heaven” poem atop it.
Ahimbisibwe’s Facebook page, too, is dominated by images of the child.
The charges against Ahimbisibwe stunned his former college soccer coach. “I never had any problems with this kid,” said Ike Ofoje, a coach at the University of South Carolina at Aiken. “He was a nice kid.”
Ofoje said Ahimbisibwe was always polite. “This is just beyond . . .” the coach said, his voice trailing off for a moment.
Ahimbisibwe was born overseas but had become a U.S. citizen, according to his attorney, John Lavigne, at Monday’s hearing. He went to high school in Montgomery County and enrolled at South Carolina at Aiken. But he didn’t do well academically and stayed only one year, according to his coach.
After returning to Maryland, Ahimbisibwe held jobs including front-desk agent at a health club, night auditor at a hotel and server at a restaurant, according to Lavigne and to Ahimbisibwe’s Facebook page. He has no record of criminal convictions, Lavigne said.
Hudson was born Jan. 20.
In June, according to police records filed in the case, Ahimbisibwe and Felitti were not living together but seemed to have worked out arrangements to care for their son. The morning of June 23, Felitti dropped off Hudson at Ahimbisibwe’s apartment at 6:25 a.m., according to the records, and the mother and father agreed he would take care of Hudson while she was at work.
“The baby was fine,” Assistant State’s Attorney Sherri Koch said in court.
At 10:40 a.m., Ahimbisibwe called 911, saying the boy was unresponsive. Arriving officers found him performing CPR on his son. The baby was taken to a hospital in Germantown and then transferred to Children’s National Medical Center in the District, where he was pronounced dead, according to police allegations filed in court.
On Oct. 9, the D.C. chief medical examiner determined that Hudson had suffered trauma to his head, neck and trunk – and ruled the death a homicide, according to court filings.
Detectives interviewed the boy’s father last week.
He told them that his son had become fussy and wouldn’t stop crying, and that he became frustrated with the child, detectives asserted in court papers.
“Austin Ahimbisibwe stated that he grabbed the victim by the neck and face and covered the victim’s mouth with his hand in an effort to get the victim to stop crying,” detectives wrote.
“The defendant in this case became frustrated with the baby and then shook the baby,” Koch, the prosecutor, said in court Monday, adding that the injuries were “consistent with shaking and abusive head trauma.”
Featured Image: Montgomery County, Md., Police Department
(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Dan Morse
