BAYTOWN – A 27-year-old Baytown man has been arrested and charged with capital murder in connection with the death of his 7-week-old child, according to court documents.
Christopher Leon Jenkins is accused of killing the newborn on July 25, 2025, by striking the baby with a blunt object.
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Officers with the Baytown Police Department responded to Jenkins’ apartment and found the infant unresponsive on a mattress, with no pulse and pink fluid coming from the baby’s mouth, records state.
According to investigators, the child had been left in Jenkins’ care while the baby’s mother went to visit her own mother, who lived in a nearby apartment in the same complex.
The child’s mother told investigators that 20 minutes after leaving the baby with Jenkins, he came to her mother’s door saying something was wrong. When she returned, she found the infant unclothed on a mattress with blood coming from the nose.
A relative began performing CPR and was able to briefly restore the baby’s breathing before emergency crews arrived. The infant was transported to Texas Children’s Hospital, where he died seven days later, court documents state.
A witness told investigators they heard Jenkins yelling at the newborn to “shut up” while the baby was crying. The witness said the crying suddenly stopped shortly afterward.
Authorities said Jenkins gave multiple, conflicting accounts of what happened. Initially, he told officers he had put the baby down for a nap and later returned to find the infant not breathing.
Investigators say Jenkins later claimed he tried to throw the baby on the bed, but the baby bounced off, hitting his head on the floor. Jenkins said he began shaking the baby to make sure he was okay, and noticed he was bleeding.
During a demonstration with a doll, authorities said Jenkins showed how he threw the baby onto a bed, where the infant allegedly bounced off and hit the floor.
An autopsy later determined the infant died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Nearly nine months after the incident, Jenkins was arrested Saturday and booked into the Harris County Jail, according to online records.
His bond has been denied. He is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.