A 20-year-old man was arrested earlier this month, accused of breaking his 2-month-old daughter's arm then inflicting more injuries on her while she was recovering in the hospital.
Jimmy Smith was booked May 7 into the Lubbock County Detention Center on counts of injuring a child and aggravated assault of a family members with a weapon causing serious bodily injury.
On Tuesday, a Lubbock County grand jury returned an indictment against Smith on the injuring a child charge, a third-degree felony that carries a punishment of two to 10 years in prison.
The remaining charge, which is a first-degree felony, has not yet been presented to a grand jury.
Lubbock police were dispatched May 1 to Covenant Children's, where Smith's daughter was taken for a broken arm.
Four days later, a doctor contacted police investigators after the girl suffered a seizure from new injuries that likely stemmed from physical abuse.
The new injuries included a brain bleed, seven fractured ribs, a torn frenulum, bruising across her entire torso and bruising on the left side of her face.
The doctor told detectives the child's injuries appear to have resulted from at least three recent episodes of physical abuse while she was in the hospital.
Medical staff told investigators that the girl's mother left for work and Smith was the only person with the infant during the times she would have been injured, according to police reports.
A nurse told detectives she rushed to the girl's room after an emergency alarm was triggered and she saw the girl experiencing a seizure.
However, while nurses tried to treat the infant, Smith continued trying to feed her and had to be asked to stop, the report states.
Once the seizure subsided, the nurse told investigators she assessed the girl and saw popped blood vessels in her left eye, which prompted a head CT scan that revealed the left side of her brain had a small bleed.
Further imaging revealed seven rib fractures.
The girl also had blood in her mouth from a torn frenulum that was "consistent with an item being shoved into a baby's mouth to 'get her to shut up,'" the affidavit states.
The nurse told investigators that a trauma doctor spoke with Smith and his girlfriend about their daughter's injuries, saying they appeared to be the result of physical abuse. She said she heard Smith reportedly blaming the injuries on the stress medical staff was putting on his daughter.
Meanwhile, another nurse told investigators that the night before the seizure, while doing her rounds on the floor she heard a "guttural cry that she was never heard before" coming from the infant's room.
She said as she approached Smith's room, she could hear what appeared to be the sounds of something being pushed against a mattress.
When she entered the girl's room, she said she saw Smith, the only other person with the child, and he appeared startled and began fumbling around for a bottle.
The nurse told investigators that it didn't look like Smith was actually looking for a bottle or was trying to feed his daughter.
However, the girl appeared OK and settled and she stepped outside the door and waited.
Moments later, the girl began crying again and she heard the sound of someone throwing something.
She entered the room again and Smith appeared shocked. The girl sat upright as Smith pulled at her shirt, saying he was trying to feed the baby.
She said Smith appeared annoyed and mumbled under his breath. The nurse said Smith appeared frustrated that he had to be the one to feed his child, the affidavit states.
During his interview with detectives, Smith reportedly admitted to breaking his daughter's arm, saying he pulled on her arm trying to help her defecate, the affidavit states.
However, he blamed his daughter's new injuries on hospital staff, who he said were now blaming him to cover up their actions.
He said he would be "damned if he lost his baby over malpractice."
He said he believed the healing rib fractures stemmed from actions by nurses at University Medical Center where his daughter was taken a few weeks before for dehydration.
He said nurses there pressed on her for entire an hour.
According to the affidavit, the child had been to University Medical Center and Covenant multiple times.
On April 24, she was at UMC for a follow up with a pediatrician. Five days later she was taken to Covenant Health's emergency room for lesions on her feet and urinary issues.
The next day she was admitted to Covenant for fever blisters.
Smith told detectives he believed his daughter was already suffering seizures when she went to the hospital previously for breathing issues.
Smith said he was never alone with his daughter but said nurses were nearby when his daughter had the seizure.
He said he was bottle feeding the girl while holding her when she lifted up her head, grunted and began convulsing.
He said the child was screaming with her tongue out, "using a different cry he had not heard before," right before she began seizing.
During the seizure, he said his daughter hit her head on his shoulder, which he believed caused the injury to her mouth.
He told detectives that the sounds the nurse heard the night before the seizure was him changing his daughter's diaper and aggressively searching for her bottle.
He admitted to being frustrated with the child at times but denied harming her.
Near the end of the interview, he told detectives that he believed the girl's mother may have harmed the child, saying she has a "very high temper."
Detectives also spoke with the girl's mother, who said she felt guilty over leaving for work while her child was hurt.
She told detectives that Smith "comes off as such a good dad, but it's probably true that he did this."
She said her perception of Smith has now changed, describing him as aggressive, saying she's seen Smith's impatience with their child. She said that Smith's temper might have boiled over and caused him to hurt their daughter, the affidavit states.
She provided investigators the text messages Smith sent her after doctors found the new injuries on her daughter.
In the messages, Smith said their daughter had a seizure, saying it was from heat stroke. "She was under heavy stress and fatigue," the message states.
Smith reportedly said a nurse was in the room with him the whole time when the seizure happened.
"Hey, don't be upset with me, they was (sic) in there the whole time it happened," Smith reportedly said.
The messages also reportedly showed Smith asking his girlfriend to "stick up for him" while speaking with detectives, saying the situation was serious and "they needed to be on the same page."
The detective noted that none of the messages showed Smith's concern about the condition of their daughter.
Smith remains held at the jail, his bond is set at $150,000 for the injury to a child charge and $300,000 for the aggravated assault charge.
