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Dad gets 10-year sentence for shaking infant sonWed, 03/18/2009 - 2:33pm
By: John Munford
A Peachtree City man accused of violently shaking his 10-week-old son was convicted Wednesday by a Fayette County jury. George Anthony Bowman Jr. was convicted of two counts of misdemeanor battery (reduced by the jury from felony aggravated battery counts) and one felony count of cruelty to children. Bowman was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by 10 years probation by Superior Court Judge Paschal A. English Jr. The baby was shaken with such force that his brain struck the front and back of the skull, Assistant District Attorney Warren Sellers told the jury. That led to bleeding in the child’s brain and a three-week hospital stay, Sellers said. The baby now has developmental delays and is receiving several different types of therapy, he added. Bowman testified Tuesday that he tried a number of ways to comfort his infant son before shaking him for approximately three seconds at their home Aug. 30. Bowman told the court that he had tried to calm the child down by cuddling him, bouncing him on his knee and making funny faces to him, among other attempts. The child continued crying and before he knew it he had already shaken the baby, he testified. Immediately after the incident, Bowman said he put the baby down in a swing and went to fix the child a bottle. Then he stopped, noticing the baby had trouble breathing and “he looked like he was having a seizure or something,” he told the court. “I called his name, I was crying ... I was trying to get him to snap out of it,” Bowman said. Bowman then called 911 and performed rescue breathing as directed by a 911 operator until a police officer arrived and began CPR until paramedics reached the scene. At the time of the incident Bowman had been home alone all day caring for his son while his wife was at work. Bowman is charged with two counts of aggravated battery and one count of cruelty to children. Closing arguments are expected to occur tomorrow morning and then the case will be deliberated by the jury. Bowman’s testimony was at times touching. In the middle of recounting the frenetic seconds that led up to the shaking incident, Bowman told the jury the favorite nicknames he liked call his son. “Little man, pee-wee I called him,” Bowman said, a smile breaking across his face. Under cross examination, Bowman admitted that he told police Det. Gary Meier that when he shook his son he did so out of anger. Bowman said that’s because he was tired, under stress and didn’t know how to express his feelings to the detective. “I was never angry at my son,” Bowman said. When asked why, Bowman replied that he was scared. “I didn’t want my son to go to the hospital alone because if I’m taken away my wife never would have known,” Bowman said. He said he didn’t tell doctors at the hospital about the shaking because he was afraid he would never hear about how his son was doing. Bowman testified that he didn’t realize how hard he had shaken the baby at the time of the incident, which occurred at the family’s home on Beaver Dam Road while Bowman was taking care of the baby by himself; his wife was at work. The jury saw the full recording from a police officer’s patrol car which contained audio from the time the second police officer arrived. The patrol car camera captured dramatic video of several EMTs dashing outside of the home, taking the child to the ambulance where they began to restore the child’s breathing. The child was blue in color when he was first brought into the ambulance, a paramedic testified. login to post comments
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