Jury selection begins in trial of Indio man accused of killing infant

An Indio man who allegedly struck his 23-day-old son to stop him from crying goes on trial Thursday on charges of second-degree murder and assaulting a child.

The trial of Joseph Roy Scott, 24, is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., when Jury selection gets under way.

Police found an infant with “severe” head trauma when they responded to a report of child abuse at Scott’s residence on June 11, 2008, according to Indio Police Department spokesman Ben Guitron.

Scott allegedly used the heel of his hand to quiet his crying infant son, Alexander. Investigators believe the baby’s head hit a countertop, causing brain damage and seizures that contributed to his death a year later, according to Deputy District Attorney Kristi Hester.

Alexander survived the blow, but over the next few months, medication he was taking to prevent seizures caused his liver to fail. He contracted pneumonia in the hospital and died on July 4, 2009. Had he survived, Hester said, Alexander would have been developmentally disabled for the rest of his life.

Scott is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the county jail in Indio.