Man arrested after baby hospitalized with head, rib fractures

3-month-old boy has life-threatening injuries; child abuse charges filed

A man is behind bars after police say he choked, head-butted and crushed his girlfriend’s 3-month-old baby boy over the Easter weekend, leaving him with life-threatening injuries.

The baby was taken to the hospital with multiple rib fractures, two skull fractures and a brain hemorrhage, in addition to bruising all across his upper body.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, 30-year-old Evan Ritchey faces three counts of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm and one count of child abuse not resulting in great bodily harm.

Police say officers responded to the University of New Mexico Hospital around 8 a.m. Saturday for an infant brought in with “multiple and life-threatening injuries.”

The baby’s mother, Lynea Haury told detectives she handed the baby off to Ritchey to get some sleep before work.

Police say that, when Ritchey gave the baby back to Haury a few hours later, she noticed bruising on the baby’s head and that the infant’s skull “felt soft to the touch” and he “didn’t fully open his eyes.”

Haury told detectives that the baby is in a phase in which he screams and cries due to gas pain, which “angers” Ritchey.

During questioning, Ritchey told detectives he was “resentful” of the baby boy, because caring for him left Ritchey less time to spend with Haury.

Police say Ritchey admitted using “considerable force” to crush the crying baby to his chest “with his crossed arms” for 20 seconds.

Ritchey told detectives that “this violence” initially makes the baby go quiet, but the baby began screaming gain, then he “silenced the baby” by choking him with his right hand for five seconds.

Police say the baby began to scream again and Ritchey “used even greater force” to crush the baby to his chest with crossed arms “for an even longer period” than the first time.

Ritchey also told detectives he “head-butted” the infant by smashing his forehead into the baby’s forehead.

Afterward, police say Ritchey tripped over a laundry basket “falling on top of the child” onto the floor and “striking” the back of the baby’s head.

Haury told doctors that two weeks before, she noticed the baby had a “black eye” after being left in Ritchey’s care.

When asked about the black eye, Ritchey told detectives he had “flicked” the baby in the eye with his finger because the child was “crying in the car seat” while Ritchey was driving.

A spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, Officer Simon Drobik, said Haury has other children in her home and they will remain with her since she has not been implicated in the crime.

According to court documents, Ritchey was arrested for aggravated assault in 2013 after police say he pulled a gun while driving and pointed it at another driver.

In that case, Ritchey took a guilty plea in 2014 and was sentenced to unsupervised probation for a year, which he served.