Father Charged With Murder In Infant’s Death Fatal Injuries Caused By Violent Shaking, Autopsy Shows

Latah County prosecutors charged a Moscow, Idaho, man Tuesday with murdering his infant daughter, accusing him of causing the fatal injuries by violently shaking the 3-1/2-month-old girl.

David Pettit, a 24-year-old University of Idaho student, was being held in the Latah County Jail without bail on a first-degree murder charge.

An autopsy performed Monday in Spokane showed Rebekkah S. Pettit died of bleeding in the brain, said Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson.

Pettit admitted he had shaken Rebekkah, but he told detectives his actions were a panicked attempt to revive his daughter, who he said had been knocked unconscious after accidentally tumbling from his arms to the floor, Moscow Police Chief Dan Weaver said.

Rebekkah died Sunday night, three days after she was flown to a Spokane hospital with severe head and brain damage, including retinal tearing. Doctors also discovered several ribs that had been broken in the weeks before the infant was fatally injured, according to court documents.

Doctors told police the girl’s injuries were consistent with shaken baby syndrome.

Barbara “Dawn” Pettit, the girl’s 25-year-old mother, who told Spokane police she knew about prior abuse but did not witness it, has not been charged. The baby suffered the fatal injuries while her mother was attending class at the University of Idaho, Thompson said.

Autopsy results appear to confirm the reports of ongoing abuse, Weaver said.

X-rays found the baby previously had suffered a broken leg and six broken ribs, two of which were at least 2-week-old injuries.

Dr. George Lindholm, the Spokane County forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, also discovered several broken ribs along Rebekkah’s spine that did not show up in the X-rays, court documents state.

David Pettit has admitted shaking Rebekkah on three other occasions, according to charging papers. “He down-played how hard he shook the child on two of the incidents but admitted shaking the child hard three to four weeks ago to get it to start breathing,” detective Sgt. Bruce Fager wrote in an affidavit of probable cause. “During one of the incidents, he said, he did CPR on the child after he found her not breathing.”

Weaver said Rebekkah never was treated by doctors for broken ribs.

Rebekkah’s leg was broken when she was just 2 weeks old, Spokane police said. Idaho Child Protective Services removed the girl from her parents’ home for a month before returning her, police said.

Bill Walker, an Idaho Department of Health and Welfare spokesman, refused to comment about the case. State privacy laws prohibited him from commenting about any involvement the agency may have had with the family, Walker said.

David Pettit told police that he had been holding Rebekkah on the arm of a chair about noon last Thursday when she fell and suffered the fatal head injuries.

“He said that he reached down with his right hand and yanked her up hard by her clothing,” Fager wrote. “He said that she was not responsive so he shook her hard for two to three seconds. He said he shook her about seven to eight times out of panic to get her to respond. At one point he said that the shake was violent.”

He then picked up his wife from school when Rebekkah began crying, leaving the infant with a baby sitter. Rebekkah was “limp” when they returned, according to court records.

Fearing state child welfare officials because of the broken leg incident, the couple drove their daughter to see a Pullman, Wash., doctor “to avoid Child Protective Services in Idaho,” court records said.

According to Spokane police, Barbara Pettit said her husband told her he had dropped, shaken and squeezed the baby several times in the past. He said the baby also had stopped breathing on some occasions, police said.

Barbara Pettit told police she never witnessed the abuse because the alleged incidents happened while she was in class.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: AUTOPSY REPORT An autopsy performed Monday showed 3-1/2-month-old Rebekkah S. Pettit died of bleeding in the brain. Doctors also discovered other injuries, which they told police were consistent with shaken baby syndrome.