Couple charged in abuse of 8-month-old baby
STURGIS — Two former Sturgis residents are facing two charges of first degree child abuse that left an 8-month-old boy on life support in intensive care.
Amanda Nicole Wood, 33, was arraigned in 3B District Court on Friday, Aug. 19, and held on a $100,000 bond. Her boyfriend, 39-year-old Jason Haskin, was arraigned Thursday, Aug. 25, in the same court, and held without bond as a parole absconder. He is in MDOC custody.
A maintenance worker entered a Village Manor apartment Aug. 8 in northeast Sturgis and found two children left alone. He called police because the 8-month-old baby boy “did not look good,” police Sgt. Aaron Moore said in his report.
Wood told Moore she left for a few moments to find a phone to make a call. The baby was propped up on the couch. A 3-year-old ran around the apartment naked.
Moore noticed the baby rasping as he tried to breathe. An infection was visible on his neck. His diaper overflowed onto the couch.
Wood blamed a bruise on the baby’s forehead on the 3-year-old biting him. Wood admitted she noticed the breathing difficulty, but never called 911, the police report stated. Wood said Haskin, who lived with her and her two sons, left 30 minutes before police arrived to go to his mother's in Detroit.
Sgt. Moore had Wood take the older boy to be checked at Sturgis Hospital, where EMTs took the baby.
Doctors found the baby was dehydrated with a 104.3-degree temperature. Besides the neck infection, ribs on both sides of his chest were broken. The baby’s urine tested positive for methamphetamine.
Transferred to the Bronson Hospital Pediatric intensive care, doctors determined the baby had fractures of both left and right tibia, a left femur fracture, and a broken left tibia. Signs of other bone fractures were present, medical reports stated. “There was soft tissue swelling across his entire body. He had multiple face contusions,” they read.
The neck infection was the superbug Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - MRSA - a type of staph bacteria that becomes resistant to most antibiotic treatment.
Wood denied hurting the baby and said she did not know how he was injured. She said only she and Haskin watched the children.
Police were unable to locate Haskin.
Nine days later in Three Rivers, where she moved, Wood told investigators another woman said the 3-year-old fell down the stairs holding the baby two to three days after they arrived.
The officers said Wood told them “Jason was good with the children," and she "never physically seen him do any harm to them.”
Wood detailed “one incident where Jason held the baby up in the air with one arm/hand and said he was going to throw him against the wall.” He did not and gave the baby back to her, the report stated.
Wood said the older boy was afraid of Haskin. When Haskin yelled at the 3-year-old, the boy “would fall to the floor on his knees.”
Wood maintained neither she nor Haskin injured the baby but also said no one else cared for him.
Both Wood and Haskin face charges for the abuse of the baby. Both also are charged with abuse in the presence of the older child. Convictions would allow any sentence up to life.
Wood was charged as a third habitual offender. She was convicted of possession of a stolen credit card in Kalamazoo in 2005. In 2007 she was convicted of perjury in Cass County.
That would double any sentence.
Haskin is charged as a fourth habitual offender, also a life offense. Haskin has convictions for breaking and entering in 2003 and assault with a weapon in 2009 in Wayne County. He pleaded no contest as a third offender in 2020 in Oakland County for domestic violence against a pregnant woman.
That conviction sent Haskin back to prison to complete a 2009 Oakland County felonious assault sentence of two to 15 years. Haskin was placed on parole May 13, 2021.
Both are represented by public defenders. Pre-trial conferences and preliminary exams are set within the next 21 days.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Wood and Haskin charged with abuse of her 8-month-old baby
