Dad jailed after blaming baby daughter’s gruesome murder on 20lb cat
A father has been jailed for 15 years after he blamed his two-month-old daughter's death on his pet cat.
Kristopher Henderson, 41, from Minnesota, US, pleaded guilty to unintentional second-degree murder in Blue Earth County District Court after his daughter died from horrific injuries in November 2021.
As part of a plea deal, the charges of manslaughter and malicious punishment of a child were excluded after the infant suffered life-changing injuries in September 2021.
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The police were informed on September 24 once the infant's mother found out her daughter's eyes looked like they were “bulged out” of her head.
It all started when the mother left her baby in her father's company while leaving for work the same morning.
But when she returned home and discovered her daughter's "shocking and terrible" condition, she rushed her to the hospital.
The doctors were astonished at the injuries that included broken ribs, broken femurs, and a torn frenulum- a part of the tongue and brain haemorrhaging.
Henderson pretended to be innocent and told police that their 20-pound cat had laid on the baby and caused the trauma.
After listening to Henderson, the doctors confirmed that the severe injuries could not have been caused by a cat.
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A probable cause statement said: "The 20-pound cat that father states was around the infant, is not the cause of these injuries."
Even though the baby had grim chances of "recovery" due to little brain activity yet she was still kept on a "life-support machine".
Once the doctors determined that there were bleak chances for proper recovery, they initiated difficult discussions with the mother about the possibility of terminating life support for the child.
A decision was reached and she was tragically pronounced dead on November 3, 2021.
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After constant denials, the father finally confessed that he had cradled the baby “face down in his arms and struck her back more forcefully than usual for what he estimated was five minutes while trying to calm her down.”
According to the probable cause statement, officers asked Mr Henderson if he had struck the baby hard enough to break her ribs, which he admitted too.
In the end, Henderson confirmed that he might have been a little rough with the infant when changing her diaper.
Mr Henderson had been in custody on a $1 million (£800,00) bail since his arrest in October 2021.
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