DES MOINES – A 17 year-old Des Moines man has been charged with murder after his 8-month old daughter died as a result of traumatic injuries.
Jayden Straight turned himself into police early Sunday morning, and is charged with Murder in the First Degree and Child Endangerment.
Straight’s 8-month-old daughter, Raija Straight, was dropped off at Mercy Hospital on Friday. She had serious head injures, and died on Saturday.
According to criminal complaints, doctors at Mercy Medical Center advised Des Moines police investigators that Raija Straight had injuries “from a deliberate assault and could not be explained as unintentional or accidental”.
Such injuries included multiple skull fractures, a ruptured spleen, several broken ribs and massive retina hemorrhaging.
“They were injuries that were not accidental, nothing that an 8-month-old baby could generate on their own,” said Des Moines Police Sergeant Paul Parizek.
A full investigation was launched after police say the saw the suspicious injuries.
“Based on the medical opinion of the physicians and the medical staff and what we learned through our investigation there is a very small window of time there where that child was left alone with the person that we charged,” Sgt. Parizek said.
That person is 17-year-old Jayden Straight, who police say had the child at home all day.
Court documents say the child’s mother was running errands throughout the day, and that Raifa “appeared normal and fine” when she and Jayden Straight were left alone together Friday afternoon at their home on 10th Street.
“There was some time where other family members were present, but based on the medical opinion of the physicians who treated the child and our investigation, that small window of time he was the only one with the child,” Sgt. Parizek said.
This is the seventh homicide of 2018.
