Shocking new details were revealed in the 2021 death of a 6-week-old baby on Cape Cod at the baby's father's arraignment on a murder charge on Monday.
The boy had hemorrhaging in his brain and eyes, several broken ribs and broken legs "consistent with someone twisting them," a prosecutor said in Barnstable Superior Court. Randy Patterson-Gerber, 25, pleaded not guilty and was held without bail.
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The baby was found unresponsive, discolored and cool to the touch at a home in Centerville, Massachusetts, on Sept. 7, 2021, authorities have said. The child was flown to a hospital in Boston but later died.
The baby, whose name was given in court as Cobain, had injuries consistent with what's commonly known as shaken baby syndrome, a Cape & Islands assistant district attorney said, and Patterson-Gerber was the last person in the room with him — having announced to the child's mother about 45 minutes before he was found unresponsive that he'd gotten the child to sleep.
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Patterson-Gerber is also wanted on three charges of assault and battery on a child in a different case, in Norfolk County, involving another baby of his, the prosecutor said in court. That baby also had "two injuries to its limbs consistent with twisting fractures, similar to baby Cobain."
The Norfolk District Attorney's Office said Monday that the other case case is still in pre-arraignment and they had no further comment.
A public defender for Patterson-Gerber said in court that prosecutors "have not shown that Mr. Patterson-Gerber actually did this and we would like an opportunity to examine that."
His next court date is Jan. 3.
The case had been considered unsolved until the charges against Patterson-Gerber were announced Sunday. District Attorney Robert Galibois said in that statement that he deeply appreciated the work conducted by the state police violent apprehension fugitive unit and the Falmouth and Dedham police departments in arresting him.
The baby died at 48 days old after being taken to Boston Children's Hospital, prosecutors said. He'd been in the hospital for five days.
"We're gonna miss him, he was a great little kid, great little baby," said Hal Mosher, the child's great-grandfather, outside court. "God bless him."
Patterson-Gerber, the baby and the baby's mother were staying in a spare room at the Centerville home, and had been happy and healthy while sleeping in a pack-and-play, the prosecutor said. The morning he was allegedly fatally hurt, he woke up fussy and wouldn't take his bottle — it was later found that he had tested positive for COVID — and his mother was trying in vain to soothe the child.
She gave the baby to Patterson-Gerber, who had just showered and was supposed to go to work, prosecutors said, and went to talk to the homeowner, whom she considered a mother figure. They called the pediatrician about 9:10 a.m.
Soon afterward, Patterson-Gerber "walked out of the bedroom, indicated, 'I got him to sleep,' and then walked outside to smoke a cigarette," the prosecutor said, while the mother stayed in the living room and then went to the bathroom.
She went back into the bedroom and saw Patterson-Gerber face-down on the bed, sleeping, and the baby face-up on the bed, not breathing, according to the prosecutor, who said the mother started screaming and 9-1-1 was called about 10:07 a.m.
"The defendant walked into the living room with the baby and just stood there and held the baby up with one hand, almost like Simba from 'The Lion King.' The homeowner grabbed the baby and said, 'We have to do CPR,'" the prosecutor said.
While the mother and father initially denied that the baby had been hurt, the prosecutor said, "once he was at Boston Hospital, it became extremely apparent the injuries were not consistent with the initial story." There were all three major signs of a shaken-baby case, the medical examiner told investigators, though the medical examiner doesn't use officially the term.
The injuries were consistent with "being thrown out a window," the prosecutor said.
She also noted that Patterson-Gerber was wanted for allegedly "having abused his new infant," in a case in which "the mother woke up to the baby crying in a muffled manner and looked and saw the defendant holding, clenching the baby's mouth closed."
