A Maricopa County infant died this week after sustaining multiple injuries and being hospitalized for several days, and an indictment says his father admitted to the crime.

Nicholas Tyler Perkins, 24, of Waddell, was charged with child physical abuse and aggravated assault, both felonies, according to court documents. Those charges were filed before the infant’s death Monday afternoon, according to court records and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. A sheriff’s office spokesperson said the agency is investigating whether additional charges will be filed in the case.

According to court documents, around 2 a.m. on Jan. 5, sheriff’s deputies responded to a call about a 3-month-old baby not breathing near North 181st Street and West Hatcher Road in Waddell. Police found the infant, parents and grandfather inside the home, and paramedics found the infant unresponsive before taking him to Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Avondale with life-threatening injuries, according to court documents. Transported. Court documents say the parents told a representative that the baby boy was constipated and was born prematurely due to a medical condition. He was taken by plane to Phoenix Children’s Facility in Phoenix, the document added.

Later that morning, a social worker at the hospital informed the sheriff’s office that she wanted to report “non-accidental” injuries sustained by the child, according to court documents. Those injuries, as described in the indictment, included bruising to the left side of his face, multiple fractures in various stages of healing, and hematomas and clots caused by broken blood vessels.

Detectives with the Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit interviewed a doctor who said the infant had been internally decapitated and had multiple skull fractures with a swollen head, court documents detail. . Charging documents indicate that some of these were in the healing phase.

Detectives were advised the child might not survive, according to court documents. The child’s mother told detectives that she and Perkins lived separately, according to court documents. The mother had visited the baby with Perkins on the night of Jan. 4 and handed the child over to the grandfather while she was in the room with the father, documents said. Around 1 a.m., Perkins picked up the child from his grandfather and took him upstairs, where he heard the child crying and added that it was “loud,” according to court documents. She heard the baby stop crying and heard Perkins trot down the stairs and call for his grandfather, according to court documents.

Perkins said the same thing, but later recanted, telling detectives that she slipped on the stairs and hit the toddler in the neck on the step.The baby cried, but she didn’t think much of it, the documents detail. He stated that he had been prosecuted.

Confronted that the reported wound was healing, Perkins said the baby fell off the bed and hit her leg in late November or early December, according to court documents. When told that the child’s injuries did not match his description, he further reported that he took the baby upstairs and became frustrated because the baby would not stop crying, the document continued.

Perkins said he forcibly shook the baby after she lost control and became unconscious, according to the indictment. According to court documents, he demonstrated how the infant was shaken and admitted that he believed the infant was injured that way.

Perkins was charged on Jan. 5 and was being held on $350,000 bail, according to court records. His next court appearance is Jan. 22, according to court records.

This article originally appeared in the Arizona Republic. Waddell baby dies as father jailed in Maricopa County