August 9, 2016
By Paul Joseph, Paragon News Director –
A Beckham County jury is now deliberating the case of a Canute man charged with child abuse by injury.
26-year-old Nicholas Kyle Merz has been on trial since Thursday charged with the felony after allegedly causing the injuries to a ‘then,’ three-month old baby boy in 2014. The child has been described by medical witnesses as “slow” in developing and may be permanently blind in one eye with inability to see much in the other eye.
According to a probable cause affidavit, investigators believe Merz is responsible for the injuries of the child that were diagnosed as abusive head trauma, or AHT also called shaken baby syndrome.
The court document says that on September 6, 2014, the baby’s mother took the infant to Sayre Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Room after finding the child drenched in sweat and his left side twitching. The infant was then transferred to OU Children’s Hospital where a doctor diagnosed the baby to have traumatic brain injury.
At the time, Merz was the boyfriend of the mother and had been left with the baby on multiple occasions as a caregiver while the mother was away at work.
The defense rested late this morning and the jury began deliberations about noon in Beckham County District Court.
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