Dad faces murder charge in baby death

Excerpt

Randall County prosecutors filed a murder charge Thursday against a 25-year-old Amarillo man in the death of his infant son, who died Wednesday at an Amarillo hospital.
Randall County Criminal Dist…

Randall County prosecutors filed a murder charge Thursday against a 25-year-old Amarillo man in the death of his infant son, who died Wednesday at an Amarillo hospital.

Randall County Criminal District Attorney James Farren said prosecutors filed a murder charge against Jose Tedoro Flores, 25, after Flores admitted to conduct that injured the child.

"We believe there is evidence to support physical abuse of this child at the hands of the defendant, and that the child died as a result of that," Farren said. "The complaint includes a probable cause paragraph ... it states that he has admitted that he committed the physical acts that resulted in the child's death."

Farren said he has not received autopsy results on the boy, who was only months old and was born prematurely, but said investigators think he suffered a brain injury. The state, he said, also is awaiting autopsy results and information from other tests that will come from further medical examinations.

Farren said the case technically qualifies as a capital murder case because the boy was younger than 10, but prosecutors have not yet determined whether they will file a capital murder charge against Flores, who remained at the Randall County jail Thursday.

At 10:20 a.m. Monday, police were dispatched to an unidentified south Amarillo home on an incident involving a child who was suffering from a medical problem, Potter-Randall Special Crimes Unit Lt. Erick Bohannon said.

The infant then was transported to a local hospital by ambulance, but the child died Wednesday.

Investigators from the Special Crimes Unit later arrested Flores, 25, on a charge of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury and he was booked into Randall County jail. Investigators classified the death as a homicide.

The boy's services are pending with Cox Funeral Home.