Shaken Baby Investigation

Monday, December 18th 2006, 5:09 pm

By: News On 6

The investigation has begun into one of the worst cases of shaken baby syndrome local doctors have ever seen. A two month old baby is in critical condition tonight with two skull fractures.

The baby's father is behind bars, accused of severely shaking the infant. Monday evening, Newson6 reporter Ashli Sims talked with the baby's devastated family, who says they tried to reach out for help.

Robert Blevins admits, at first, he was a reluctant grandfather.

Robert Blevins, babyâ€™s grandfather: "It took a little to get used to cause I was scared to get so attached. I was worried he'd get taken away from me or I wouldn't get to see him or something."

But who couldn't fall in love with this face.

Blevins: â€œI love him to death he's just a joy for all of us.â€

Now the grandson he's grown to adore is in critical condition with two skull fractures, brain swelling and bleeding, Blevins' stepson, Henry Moland the baby's father, is accused of hurting him.

Officers say in a police report, Moland admitted he was stressed out because the baby had been yelling and crying for days. The report says Moland told police he swung the baby backwards and the infant's head hit a wooden coffee table.

The report goes on to say Moland said the baby's head could have hit the table up to three times, and he shook the baby two to four times. 22-year-old Moland was arrested last Thursday, accused of felony child abuse. Blevins says this all could have been prevented. He says he called the police on his stepson just a couple of weeks ago, because he was hitting the baby's mother.

Blevins: â€œThat was one of the reasons why I called the police is to get help. And all they did was slap him on the wrist and tell him to go home."

He says Moland has a history of violence and even had a protective order against him. Blevins says D-H-S got involved and knew that Moland was being violent around the child. But he says they didn't take any action.

Blevins: â€œThat hadn't been taken into consideration that he'd already been placed into an anger management class and everything else. I wish they had focused on that more and maybe kept him away so that he wouldnt have gotten to the point where he wouldn't have been able to do such a thing."

The baby's grandfather says he asked D-H-S to contact child welfare with the Cherokee Nation, because of the baby's Indian heritage. He says they told him they would, but they didn't. We called D-H-S, but the Bartlesville office said they couldn't talk to us. And the Oklahoma City office didn't get back to us. We also talked to the baby's mother. She was too upset to go on camera, but she says the baby is getting better and stronger every day.