Snow, Kirby plead not guilty to child abuse charges

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    Jonathan Snow and Alyssia Kirby of Mountain Home, who face charges related to child abuse based on extensive injuries to their three-week-old infant son, pled not guilty to those charges during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
    Snow is charged with first-degree battery and endangering the welfare of a minor, while Kirby is charged with first-degree battery, permitting child abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor.
    The 19-year-old Snow and the 30-year-old Kirby, who both list the same address along State Highway 201 North, were arrested and charged 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 the infant.
    The hospital reported the infant in critical condition, said it had lost two pounds since birth, had a broken clavicle, numerous bruises, bleeding and swelling of its brain and was suffering seizures.
    The infant was first taken to a local doctors office, sent to the Emergency Room at Baxter Regional Medical Center and then transferred to Arkansas Children's Hospital.
    Snow and Kirby are listed in court records as the parents of the infant.
    In the opinion of the medical experts, there is no scenario in which a single drop or fall would explain the child's extensive injuries — including bruises to his forehead, to the inner aspect of his left eye, to his left chest wall as well as a fracture to the right clavicle, injury to the brain on the left side and bleeding over both surfaces of the brain.
    According to the probable cause affidavit filed in Snow's case, he could recall no accidents or trauma to the baby. He told investigators that he and Kirby were the only ones that had ever been alone with the baby.
    Snow has been held in the Baxter County Detention Center since being arrested September 23rd. His bond is set at slightly more than $52,000 according to the jail log. Kirby was arrested a day earlier and released after posting a $50,000 bond.
    Both Snow and Kirby told Judge Gordon Webb that they did not yet have lawyers. Kirby said she had made contact with an attorney and was attempting to work out an arrangement for representation. Snow said he had completed an application for the services of the Public Defender's Office.
    Snow is to reappear in Circuit Court October 6th and Kirby will reappear on November 10th.

   

Alyssia Kirby

   

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