Two Mountain Home residents, Alyssia Kirby and Jonathan Snow, have been arrested and are facing charges related to child abuse, according to court and jail records.
Kirby, who lists an address along State Highway 201 North, is charged with first-degree battery, endangering the welfare of a minor and permitting child abuse. She was arrested Thursday at 3:28 p.m. and was released at 9:16 p.m. the same day after posting a $50,000 bond.
Snow was booked into the Baxter County jail Friday on charges of first-degree battery and endangering the welfare of a minor. He remained jailed on Sunday with his bond set at slightly more than $52,000.
The arrests came as the result of an investigation launched in late February when the Mountain Home Police Department received a report from Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock of suspected abuse of a three-week-old male infant.
The hospital reported the infant was in critical condition, had lost two pounds since birth, had a broken clavicle, numerous bruises, bleeding and swelling of his brain and was having seizures.
In the opinion of the medical experts, there is no scenario in which a single drop or fall would explain the infant’s extensive injuries — including bruises to his forehead, to the inner aspect of his left eye, bruising to his left chest wall, fracture to the right clavical, injury to the brain on the left side and bleeding over both surfaces of the brain.
According to electronic court records, Kirby and Snow are listed as the infant’s parents.
The parents could provide investigators no explanation as to how the infant sustained the extensive injuries he suffered, but the medical team suspected abuse, according to court records. According to the probable cause affidavit in Kirby’s case, it appears the father recorded the infant’s seizures on his phone. Investigators said there were 22 videos on the father’s phone showing the infant having seizures — all taken between 3:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. on February 22nd.
Medical professionals who examined the infant said from what they had been told by Kirby, it appeared that the child was having fairly significant seizure activity as early as Saturday, but the parents did not seek medical attention for the infant until Monday morning, February 22nd. They said some of the brain injury suffered by the infant is likely due to the “stress on the brain from having seizures and the parent’s delay in seeking medical treatment”. There is some fear the injuries have the potential to cause lifelong problems for the child.
The infant’s mother told investigators she did not realize what she described as the baby’s “little fits” were, in reality, seizures. Kirby said the baby had at least six more “fits” prior to her calling the doctor’s office on Monday.
According to investigative records, when the baby was brought to a local doctor’s office on February 22nd, the doctor immediately sent the infant to the emergency room. The baby was then sent on to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock after having another seizure in the BRMC emergency room.
Both parents told investigators they were the infant’s sole caregivers, and no one else has ever been alone with the infant. The father said he could recall no accidents or traumas involving the baby which might explain the extensive injuries.
Paperwork in the file indicates the child has been placed in foster care by the state Department of Human Services.
The investigation was conducted by the Mountain Home Police Department and a special agent with the Arkansas State Police.
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