After hours of caring for the 2-month-old baby, a Blue River Township man told police he picked her up quickly in frustration, according to court documents.
Jamison Cyrus Allan Hendley, 22, said the baby had been lying on the floor crying and that he might have shaken her a little when he picked her up. He then showed police how he shook the baby, using a doll, which police described as violent and angry, according to documents used to get a search warrant for Hendley’s cellphone.
Four days later, Braelyn Hendley died, after suffering bruises, seizures, a significant brain injury and retinal bleeding and detachment, the documents said. An autopsy showed the infant died after suffering brain damage due to blunt force trauma to the head, according to the Marion County Coroner’s Office.
Jamison Hendley was already in the Johnson County jail after being arrested on a charge of child neglect and aggravated battery last week.
On Monday, he was on medical watch, and the prosecutor is considering what formal charges should be filed. Prosecutor Brad Cooper said he first wanted to get the results from the autopsy of the baby girl.
The baby’s mother, Autumn Grissom, had returned home from work at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday and discovered her daughter was not breathing correctly, according to court records. Braelyn was being watched by Grissom’s live-in boyfriend, Jamison Hendley, while she was at work, according to a news release from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. Both said the baby was acting normal before Grissom left, according to court records.
Grissom took Braelyn to Johnson Memorial Hospital in Franklin, and Hendley asked her to keep him updated because he was staying home, the court records said.
Shortly after they got to the hospital, the baby was taken to Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis by medical helicopter. Doctors there found the baby had multiple injuries, including a significant brain injury, and was having seizures, according to court records.
The injuries were what would be seen with non-accidental trauma, doctors told police. Braelyn died just before 5 p.m. Sunday, according to the sheriff’s office.
Jamison Hendley went to the sheriff’s office to talk with investigators. During the interview, he received phone calls and text messages from Grissom. Deputies asked to search his phone and to look at the text messages, and Hendley refused, according to the search warrant police requested for his cellphone.
Hendley, 5700 U.S. 31 South, is being held in the Johnson County jail on $32,000 bond.
