GRAND HAVEN, Mich. – A Grand Haven District Court found Justin McIntyre, 23, guilty of second degree child abuse.
Bentley McIntyre, at just six-weeks-old, was flown to a Grand Rapids hospital on Aug. 4, at about 1:00 a.m. An investigation of the infants injuries, which included serious brain injuries, led authorities to believe the child had been severely shaken.
“I love my son. I would never hurt him,” McIntyre said in a police interview played in court.
However, during the same interview, McIntyre admitted to shaking the boy, but said he didn’t intend to hurt him.
The verdict came down to McIntyre’s intent, which the court decided was not planned, but rather something that occurred in a “brief moment in time when he was with Bentley.”
The now 5-month-old baby is with his mother. She said he is doing well but is taking medication for seizures.
McIntyre will be sentenced on Jan. 28.
