Doctor Testifies in Trial Against Man Accused of Infanticide

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The trial for a man accused of abusing and killing his five-month-old baby began Aug. 16, before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Cynthia H. Jones.

Anthony Ford, 25, is charged with second-degree murder, child abuse resulting in the death of a child younger than 13, first-degree child abuse resulting in severe physical injury and first-degree assault for allegedly shaking his baby daughter to death.

The prosecution used their opening statement on Tuesday to home in on the fact that Ford spent time alone with his daughter that day. Even though she acknowledged while no one actually saw Ford hit his daughter, “child abuse doesn’t usually happen in front of people,” the prosecutor said.

Tony Garcia, Ford’s defense lawyer, countered this characterization by saying Ford and his girlfriend were in love, lived with multiple family members, and there was evidence of the victim being in pain the night before the incident.

Garcia suggested there was another medical reason for the victim’s death and said the defense would be calling a doctor to refute the testimony from the prosecution’s medical professionals.

Garcia also said Ford was the one who called the ambulance and that he attempted to do CPR, which could account for some of the injuries noticed by medics.

However, in relation to those injuries, one of the victim’s doctors said the injuries she sustained, which included broken ribs, were too severe to have been caused by CPR. He said the injuries led to a diagnosis of abusive head trauma consistent with Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS).

According to court documents, on Oct. 4, 2018, five-month-old Brailynn Ford, was picked up by an ambulance at the 1000 block of Mosher Street after Ford said he noticed her limp in her crib. The medical professionals noticed bruises on the baby’s chest and head.

According to the same doctor who treated her, Brailynn was in full cardiac arrest for roughly 45 minutes which caused serious brain damage. Doctors were eventually able to revive Brailynn but she never regained consciousness. She was pronounced dead on Oct. 7, 2018.

Ford was arrested once the death was ruled a homicide by blunt force trauma. Ford has been denied bail since 2018.

Trial concluded for the day with the doctor’s testimony and is scheduled to resume before Judge Jones on Wednesday morning.

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