CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati father accused of killing his 3-week-old daughter has a previous conviction for seriously injuring another one of his newborn children — a case that ended with a three-year prison sentence that was later cut short.
Christopher Evans faced a Hamilton County judge Friday on charges of murder, felonious assault and child endangerment in the death of his 23-day-old daughter.
Investigators said the newborn suffered massive head trauma, including a skull fracture and bleeding on the brain. She died Sunday at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
WATCH: Father charged in newborn’s death has prior child abuse conviction, according to court docs
During Evans’ arraignment Friday, an assistant prosecutor told the judge the allegations bore striking similarities to what happened to Evans’ newborn son — who was also three weeks old — in Warren County in 2015.
“And as horrific as those facts are, it’s eminently predictable, because in 2015 you have the same exact injuries,” the prosecutor said. “Horrific facts that seem to be just repeating themselves over and over again... Please, for the sake of God, please do not let him be around any more children.”
A Cincinnati homicide detective echoed those concerns, telling the judge the current case “bears shocking similarities” to Evans’ previous case.
What happened to Evans’ newborn son in 2015
Court records reviewed by WCPO 9 show the previous case began in October 2015, when Evans was left alone with his then-newborn son for about 40 minutes at the family’s Loveland home.
According to a 2018 appeals court opinion, the baby appeared healthy before his mother left to run an errand. When she returned, Evans was holding the infant. Roughly 15 minutes later, Evans told her “something doesn’t seem right.”
The baby’s face was swollen and turning blue. He eventually went limp and became unresponsive. He was taken to Bethesda North Hospital before being transferred to Cincinnati Children’s.
Doctors discovered extensive injuries.
The baby had subdural bleeding, a brain injury, retinal hemorrhages and multiple fractures in his legs. A pediatric neuroradiologist testified that the severity of the brain injury was similar to trauma doctors might see after a child was hit by a car, involved in a collision or fell from a two-story window. The doctor said a short fall from a changing table would not have caused those injuries.
A child abuse pediatrician testified that bruising on the infant’s face was consistent with his face being squeezed between two fingers. The doctor said the brain injury was consistent with an impact caused by a child being thrown down, while the leg fractures were the type seen when an infant’s extremities are pulled or swung.
What Evans told investigators
Investigators questioned Evans the day after his son was hospitalized.
According to the appeals court, Evans told detectives he had bounced his son too hard, describing the force as an “8 out of 10.”
Evans also told detectives he became frustrated while changing his son’s diaper and threw the infant onto a wood-framed changing table, causing the baby’s head to strike the wooden portion.
Evans later changed his account.
When he testified at trial, Evans denied physically harming his son and said his confession was a lie. He testified that he told detectives what he thought they wanted to hear because he was afraid and worried about his child.
A jury ultimately found Evans guilty of felonious assault and child endangering and specifically found that he caused serious physical harm to the infant.
For sentencing purposes, the charges were merged, and prosecutors elected to proceed on the child-endangering conviction.
Three-year prison sentence ended after about two years
In March 2017, a Warren County judge sentenced Evans to three years in prison, with credit for 83 days already served.
Evans appealed his conviction and sentence. Among his arguments, he claimed there was insufficient evidence proving he was the person who injured his son.
The 12th District Court of Appeals rejected those arguments in 2018 and upheld his conviction and sentence.
The appeals court pointed to the medical evidence, the circumstances surrounding the injuries and Evans’ statements to detectives. The court noted the infant appeared healthy before being left alone with Evans and was bruised, swollen, limp and unresponsive afterward.
Evans, however, did not serve the full three-year prison term.
In December 2018, a Warren County judge granted Evans’ request for judicial release after he had served 733 days — just over two years.
The court found Evans was eligible for judicial release, that a non-prison sanction would adequately punish him and protect the public and that factors indicating a lesser likelihood of recidivism outweighed those indicating a greater likelihood.
Evans was placed on three years of intensive community control, including 60 days of electronic monitoring. He was also ordered to have no contact with his son, the child’s mother or her family.
His supervision was eventually terminated early.
A December 2021 court filing states Evans had complied with the rules of community control and that a criminal background check found no new arrests or convictions. The court discharged him from community control and restored his civil rights.
A fundraiser created after baby girl's death
There is another piece of the case that WCPO 9 is working to independently verify.
A GoFundMe was created Sept. 7 by someone listed as Chris Evans of Cincinnati.
In the fundraiser description, the organizer names his wife as the beneficiary and the newborn as "our Beautiful Princess/Sleeping Beauty Baby Girl" while asking for help paying for the newborn’s funeral arrangements.
The fundraiser had raised more than $2,000 of its $3,500 goal as of Friday afternoon.
WCPO 9 has not independently confirmed that the Chris Evans who created the fundraiser is the same Christopher Evans charged with murder in the baby's death.
During Friday’s hearing, Evans’ public defender entered a not-guilty plea and acknowledged the allegations were “extremely serious.”
The defense asked the court to set what the attorney called a “real bond” rather than an astronomical amount effectively designed to keep Evans jailed without bond. The attorney also raised questions about the scientific reliability of diagnosing abusive head trauma and argued there can be bias in how medical professionals evaluate possible child abuse cases.
The judge set Evans’ bond at $1 million on the murder charge and $500,000 each on the felonious assault and child endangerment charges — a combined $2 million.
Evans was also ordered to have no contact with minors.
His case will now go before a Hamilton County grand jury.
