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Forensics link father to 3-month-old baby’s August 2024 death, sheriff says

<i>KCRA via CNN Newsource</i><br/>Andrew Gray-Blessett
KCRA via CNN Newsource
Andrew Gray-Blessett

By Jonathan Ayestas

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — A Sacramento County man is accused of killing his 3-month-old son after forensics showed signs of severe blunt head trauma, officials said Thursday.

Andrew Gray-Blessett, 23, faces charges of murder and assault of a child under 8 years of age resulting in death, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said.

Gray-Blessett called dispatchers on Aug. 29, 2024, that he was rocking his baby to sleep and the child stopped breathing, the sheriff’s office said. Fire department dispatchers gave Gray-Blessett CPR instructions while on the phone.

Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office said deputies and fire department personnel went to his home near Kings Way and Butano Drive in the Del Paso Manor neighborhood. Paramedics took the baby and kept giving CPR while on the way to the hospital, but he died shortly after arriving there.

The sheriff’s office said its child abuse bureau unit began investigating the baby’s death. At first, the family including Gray-Blessett seemed cooperative, and a release from the sheriff’s office described them as nothing “out of the ordinary or suspicious.”

But an autopsy from the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office revealed “significant blunt head trauma and findings consistent with severe traumatic brain injury,” the sheriff’s office. The coroner’s findings determined the baby died from homicide.

Detectives arrested Gray-Blessett Wednesday evening after going through witness statements and evidence, the sheriff’s office said. Gray-Blessett now sits in the Sacramento County Jail and is ineligible for bail.

The sheriff’s office said Gray-Blessett is set to appear in court Friday.

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