Trial begins for dad charged in infant’s death

The trial began Monday for a 23-year-old man charged with killing his two-monthold baby more than a year ago at a home in Fairborn.

Kali N. Christon has been held in the Greene County Jail since his arrest in May 2018, about a week before he was indicted by a grand jury on one count of murder and one count of felonious assault.

The victim in the case is referred to as K.C. and is the defendant’s infant son, according to court records.

The charges stem from a police response on March 8, 2018 to Christon’s Fairborn home. Officers were dispatched shortly after 3 a.m. on the report of an unresponsive child, according to the statement of facts on file with Fairborn Municipal Court.

One officer started performing CPR on the infant until emergency medics arrived and took over the life-saving efforts; the baby was then taken to Dayton Children’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to the statement of facts.

The defendant told police at the scene he and the child were sleeping when the child started to cry; he prepared a bottle for feeding, but the baby “did not seem to take the bottle, then the child appeared to go limp,” according to the statement of facts.

Police said Christon reported doing CPR on the baby for 40 minutes before calling 9-1-1.

The autopsy, performed at the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, showed the baby suffered contusions to his head, right cheek, lower lip, right forearm and on the right side of his back, according to the statement of facts. The deputy coroner noted in the autopsy report there was internal bleeding around the brain and ruled the baby died from blunt force injuries to the head, according to the statement of facts.

Police said the baby had been in Christon’s care exclusively since the mother dropped the child off two days before the 9-1-1 call.

The trial was originally scheduled to begin in July 2018, but Christon changed his plea from not guilty to not guilty by reason of insanity, according to Greene County court records. A forensic psychiatric evaluation was completed and based on the doctor’s report, Judge Michael Buckwalter ruled Christon is competent to stand trial, according to court records.

Opening statements started Monday after the jury was selected. The trial is set to continue today and Wednesday.

Christon’s attorney Griff Nowicki could not be reached for comment.