Adrian Nichole Vetter beat Sean Mitchell’s head against a wall and crib, police said. (Mugshot: Wichita County Jail; screenshot of Mitchell: Felicity Dishman)
A woman who allegedly beat a baby boy’s head against a crib and wall is charged with murder after the infant succumbed to his injuries.
The prior charge against Adrian Nichole Vetter, 22 — injury to a child — was dismissed on Monday, according to records out of Wichita County, Texas.
She had allegedly been watching the infant, Sean “Sj” Mitchell, on June 5, but ended up striking his head against a crib and wall out of anger, said authorities. Investigators at the time called it a “near fatality event.” The baby’s mother, Felicity Dishman, announced his death on Friday.
“Sj’s fight came to an end and he is now with all of his angels in heaven,” she wrote on Facebook. “Sj I love you with everything in me my sweet boy. I wish you would’ve had the life I imagined for you but I’ll see you again one day until then I love you have fun with your grandma and grandpa up there baby.”
The baby suffered two brain bleeds, shaken baby syndrome, a fractured neck, and “countless seizures,” Dishman said in a GoFundMe campaign when he was alive.
Vetter’s attorney of record did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment.
Officers identified the victim as being 10 months old. After the incident, Sj had been taken to United Regional Hospital, where staff discovered he had two brain bleeds, according to local NBC affiliate KFDX. The baby was then rushed to Cook Children’s Medical Center in the city of Fort Worth, where an emergency room doctor told investigators the child’s head injuries indicated shaken baby syndrome.
Vetter, who had been watching the child, reportedly claimed he had a seizure and fell backward, striking his head on the wooden vinyl flooring, authorities claim. But Dr. Elizabeth Peeler, a child abuse pediatrician specializing forensic pediatrics, told investigators that the boy, who was then in critical condition, was having seizures from severe head trauma. She said the injuries were from physical abuse, KFDX reported, citing the probable cause affidavit in support of Vetter’s arrest.
After officials confronted Vetter with inconsistencies in her story, she said she had been arguing with her husband over the phone about canceling their wedding, police said and that the baby had been refusing to take a nap that day at around 11 a.m., an officer said. At around 3 p.m., she lost her temper, grabbed him from the crib, and struck the back of his head on the side rail in an attempt to stop him from crying, she allegedly said. In this version of events, she brought him to the hallway, where she struck his head into the wall forcefully. Mitchell began gasping for air, she allegedly said.
According to cops, she described bringing him to the living room, putting him on the floor, going to the kitchen for milk, and returning to find him unconscious and not breathing. Dr. Peeler, however, said it appeared that Vetter was downplaying what happened; it was believed Vetter hit the baby’s head on the crib and wall several times, not only one time each, the affidavit reportedly said.
The little boy suffered physical damage including spinal injuries and severe brain trauma, police said. At the time she spoke to police, Peeler said she did not know if Mitchell would survive, but she noted his prognosis was very poor.
The baby’s mother reportedly told police that Vetter had been watching her son for two weeks. She allegedly acknowledged to investigators that the defendant had a temper, but she “has never seen her take it out on children, just her own dogs.”
“The probable cause statements from the police are rarely, if ever, the whole story,” Vetter’s attorney David Bost told Law&Crime. “I haven’t been provided with discovery to see all the evidence yet. We have no choice but to trust the fairness of the citizens who will be our jurors, the trial Judge, and the entire Judicial Process. Out of respect for that process, I won’t be commenting any further.”
Vetter remains locked up at the Wichita County Jail.
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