Teen shaken as infant dies; father now charged with homicide
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A father convicted of injuring his infant daughter years ago by shaking her was charged Wednesday with criminal homicide following the teenager’s death.
The 13-year-old girl, who had been in the care of a family friend, died in February of “complications of a seizure disorder resulting from remote abusive head trauma,” police said in a new criminal complaint. The death was ruled a homicide.
Her father, Ariden Jackson, 37, was not in custody Wednesday, authorities said.
Court documents don’t list a defense attorney; a listed number for Jackson so he could be reached for comment could not be found Wednesday.
Jackson told police in May 2005 that he shook 4-week-old Janiya three times in an apartment in the community of McKees Rocks, outside Pittsburgh, because she would not stop crying, authorities said in a criminal complaint.
Jackson, then 23, said he had been trying to feed the child as his wife napped, and “stated he was frustrated, angry and unfortunately took it out” on the girl, according to the complaint.
Doctors at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh at the time called the injuries life-threatening and “likely to cause long-term developmental disability,” according to the criminal complaint.
Jackson pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and child and reckless endangerment and was sentenced to five to 10 years, court documents indicate. He was released in 2016 after serving 10 years, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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