A Baytown father has been charged with capital murder following the tragic death of his 7-week-old son. Christopher Leon Jenkins, 26, faces severe allegations related to the infant’s demise, which authorities have determined was due to blunt force trauma to the head and a subdural hemorrhage.
The incident that led to these charges unfolded on July 25, 2025, when emergency responders were dispatched to an apartment on East James Avenue after receiving reports of a newborn who was not breathing. Upon arrival, they found the baby unresponsive on a mattress, exhibiting no pulse and pink fluid coming from his mouth. The infant was initially stabilized and transported to Houston Methodist, then taken to Texas Children’s Hospital for further treatment.
Medical professionals later confirmed that the child’s brain bleed and cardiac arrest were consistent with abuse, leading to a tragic outcome. After a week of hospitalization, the infant was pronounced dead on August 1, 2025.
During the investigation, Jenkins initially claimed that he placed the child in bed and discovered him unresponsive upon checking. However, court documents reveal that he was alone with the baby at the time of the incident, while the boy’s mother had stepped across the parking lot to visit her own mother.
Witness accounts also raised concerns. A neighbor reported hearing Jenkins yelling at the baby on the day of the incident, noting that the infant’s cries sounded unusual. In a later confrontation with investigators, Jenkins provided inconsistent accounts of the events leading to his son’s injuries.
In a voluntary walkthrough with detectives, Jenkins demonstrated how he handled the child, admitting to having “lost [his] freaking head” and feeling “a little anger” when the baby would not stop crying. He described an incident where he threw the infant onto the bed, causing the child to bounce onto the floor. Jenkins further recounted shaking the baby to check for signs of life, noting that the infant’s body was limp at that moment.
In a significant inconsistency, Jenkins initially claimed he called 911 before retrieving the child’s mother. However, investigators found that he made the emergency call only after returning with her. It was also noted that the child’s grandmother had placed a 911 call around the same time.
As of February 26, medical examiners officially ruled the cause of death as blunt trauma to the head coupled with subdural hemorrhage, leading to the capital murder charges against Jenkins.
