According to police, an 18 year old man, Scott Wade Smith, has been charged with raping his girlfriend's 5 month old baby girl that was left in his care. The infant suffered severe injuries and was flown to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh for surgery.
Paramedics were called, by Smith, because the baby was crying so hard she couldn't breathe.
Police say that
Smith claimed the infant had choked on a crayon but paramedics didn't find anything lodged in the baby's throat, so they took her to Westmoreland Hospital where doctors found blood in her diaper.
Smith had been caring for the child while the mother, his girlfriend was in class at her high school.
The doctors immediately notified the police and authorities obtained a search warrant, Capt. George Seranko of the Greensburg Police Department told reporters.
That is when they found a blood soaked towel and baby wipes with blood on them.
Police arrested Scott Wade Smith on March 8, 2008, and charged him with five felonies, including rape of a child, causing seriously bodily injury, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and endangering the welfare of children and he is being held at the Westmoreland County Prison on a one million dollar bond.
Rape of a child with serious bodily injury under the age of 13 is punishable by life and the police urged the district attorney to push for the maximum sentence.
Smith was arraigned before Greensburg District Judge James Albert and according to the probable cause affidavit presented, as well as the blood stained towel and baby wipes that were found, there was also a bloody, used condom.
"These items were found in a cardboard box with other items such as school excuses and mail that identified Scott Smith," the affidavit said.
Other people at the home said that when the mother was getting ready for school on Friday morning about 6 am, the baby was "fine" and "smiling and happy".
In that same affidavit, written by Detective Jerry Vernail, Smith told the police he had heard the baby choking and gagging and he went to investigate and found the baby on her stomach, then removed her from the crib and found her lips blue, then proceeded to move the baby to the couch to perform CPR.
Court papers also show that Dr. Monique Higginbotham told Detective Vernail that the baby would have been in severe pain and she continue on to say that the
"bleeding could not have been spontaneous and that the infant suffered severe" injuries that were "caused by trauma."
Police got warrants and have taken DNA samples from all the people who resided in that home.
(Correction made, it is a 5 month old, not a 15 month old- Thanks to reader Pam)
