FORT SMITH - A Fort Smith man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death last March of his 2-month-old son from what doctors said was shaken baby syndrome.
Sebastian County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Linda Ward said Matthew Schutz, 27, was charged Friday with first-degree murder after the office received results of the autopsy for Benjamin Schutz.
The Arkansas medical examiner’s office ruled Benjamin’s death was a homicide and the cause was “injury to the brain from blunt force trauma of the head,” she said.
Schutz pleaded innocent March 19 in Sebastian County Circuit Court to a charge of first-degree battery accusing him of causing injuries to Benjamin on March 10. Benjamin died of his injuries on March 20 at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.
Ward said earlier that the prosecutor’s office was waiting for the autopsy results and medical records before considering amending the charge against Schutz.
She said Schutz probably will not be arraigned on the murder charge. Instead, she said, Schutz is scheduled to appear in court on June 5 for a mandatory appearance to change his plea or request a trial.
Schutz has been held in the Sebastian County jail in lieu of $75,000 bond since his March 13 arrest.
According to Fort Smith police, officers were called to Mercy Hospital in Fort Smith about midnight March 10 in regard to suspicious injuries doctors found on the infant after his parents took him to the emergency room.
At that time, Schutz told officers he dropped Benjamin on his head while placing him on a changing table at their home about 6 p.m. March 10 while his wife, Carol, was not home. The couple took Benjamin to the emergency room about 11:30 p.m. that night.
A detective who interviewed Schutz at the hospital noticed he smelled of alcohol, and Schutz admitted he had been drinking, according to reports.
Before he was arrested three days later, according to a police report, Schutz kept to his account. Detectives told Schutz medical tests showed Benjamin suffered from brain bruising and bleeding that doctors said the infant could not have suffered from being dropped on his head.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13 on 05/22/2013