Tuesday, March 1, 2005 | 10:53 a.m.
A Henderson father is charged with violently shaking his 4-month-old son, inflicting severe brain injuries that killed the baby 11 days later, police said.
John C. Schutts was arrested late Friday afternoon in connection with the death of his son Matthew, who was shaken Feb. 13, taken off life support Feb. 21 and died Thursday. Schutts is charged with murder.
An autopsy showed Matthew had several broken bones that were in various stages of healing when he died, indicating prior abuse, according to the police report.
"Something went terribly wrong for this child," Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of Clark County Department of Family Services, said.
Family services investigated an allegation in January 2003 that Matthew's brother, now 5, had been abused by an adult whom Klein-Rothschild would identify only as "another parental figure" -- not his parents -- but no evidence of abuse was found, she said.
According to the police report, 30-year-old Schutts told police he was tired the afternoon of Feb. 13 and Matthew was screaming and flailing as he put him in his swing.
Schutts told police "he got frustrated and grabbed Matthew under his arms and shook him back and forth several times, saying, 'Why won't you be quiet?' " the police report says.
Matthew continued to cry, Schutts told police, so he put him in his swing and left him there. About an hour later Matthew's mother "discovered Matthew making strange noises and shaking as if he were in a seizure," the report says.
Schutts took the baby to St. Rose Dominican Hospital, where doctors discovered he had severe bleeding of the brain and that it had recently occurred. He was transferred to Sunrise Hospital's trauma center.
Doctors there found that Matthew had four ribs that appeared to have been broken some time ago and were healing, and that his injuries were consistent with child abuse, according to the police report.
When questioned separately by detectives, both Schutts and his wife denied shaking the baby, although both said he fell from a recliner several times.
Matthew's mother told police she thought something was wrong with her baby and took him to the doctor, who kept telling her he was suffering from colic or gas, police said.
As Schutts spoke to police, his eyes began to tear up, police noted in their report.
Detectives suspected Schutts was involved, and when they confronted him, the police report says, he confessed.
Police gave Schutts a doll and asked him to demonstrate what he said he did to his son. He grasped the doll under the arms, around the torso and shook it back and forth violently, saying, "Why won't you be quiet?" the report says.
Schutts asked police to call his wife into the room, where he admitted to her what he had done to Matthew.
He did not admit to shaking him in the past, but he did say he tripped while holding Matthew when he was two months old, and the baby fell onto the bed and then onto the floor, according to the police report.
After that, Matthew would cry in pain whenever he was picked up by the torso, Schutts allegedly told detectives.
Detectives believed Schutts broke Matthew's ribs on the prior occasion "during a similar incident," police said, and arrested him on two counts of child abuse. He later posted bail and was released.
Matthew was placed on life support at Sunrise, where he remained until Feb. 21.
He continued to breathe on his own, the report says, but was in what doctors called "a vegetative state," and died at 5:45 a.m. Thursday of his injuries.
When police went to Schutts' home to arrest him, Matthew's mother told police "she did not want John arrested because as long as he was free she was getting payments from him to take care of the other children," the police report says.
Police tracked Schutts down at his mother's apartment and took him into custody.
In the prior investigation, family services received a report alleging that Matthew's brother, who was 4 at the time, had been physically abused by a family member other than his parents.
Family services interviewed the child and his family, and observed no physical evidence of abuse, so the case was closed.
Whenever a child dies, family services' comprehensive review team looks at the case "to see what we can learn," Klein-Rothschild said.
"It's just a tragedy, what we're seeing in this community," she said.
In another recent shaken baby case, 2-year-old Jada Southall died Feb. 7 after police said she was shaken by her mother's boyfriend, Osvaldo Lopez, 26. Lopez was charged with murder in that case.
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