Arkansas man faces charges in death of 10-month-old child

Benjamin Collier
Benjamin Collier

A Newport man faces charges after an autopsy revealed that a 10-month-old baby died Sunday as a result of a head injury, said Lt. Allen Edwards of the Newport Police Department.

Benjamin Collier, 20, was arrested Monday in the child's death and is being held in the Jackson County jail in Newport pending a charge of first-degree murder, Newport police said.

Officers responded to a report of an unresponsive child at the Harmony Homes Apartments complex on Pecan Street in Newport. When officers and medical personnel arrived, they found the child dead, Edwards said in a news release issued by the department.

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Authorities sent the child's body to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock where medical examiners determined that the child died of a brain injury, the release said.

Police consider the death a homicide, and Collier became a suspect during the investigation, Edwards said.

Edwards said in the release that he could not comment further on the investigation.

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State Desk on 09/13/2017

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