Teen Denied Bail In Death Of Baby Boy

A Post Falls teenager jailed on charges of shaking his girlfriend’s son to death has never been in trouble with the law before, his attorney said Thursday.

Defense attorney Ian Smith said he has only spoken generally with John D. Franzatti about the death of 4-month-old Blake Kitchen. Smith called the first-degree murder charge against Franzatti “kind of excessive.”

Blake Kitchen died Monday evening at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane after spending the weekend in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Doctors told police the infant’s injuries were consistent with shaken baby syndrome. An autopsy has been performed.

Prosecutors on Wednesday charged Franzatti with first-degree murder.

Judge Robert Burton declined Smith’s request Thursday to set bail for Franzatti. He ordered the 18-year-old to be held without bail in the Kootenai County Jail.

Authorities have released few details about what happened before police and paramedics were summoned Saturday morning to the home Franzatti shared with the infant’s mother. Police said they responded to a call of a child choking at their home near Ross Point Road and Second Avenue.

A criminal complaint filed Wednesday accuses Franzatti of “forcefully shaking” Blake Kitchen. The infant suffered internal head injuries.

Franzatti turned himself in Wednesday after he learned a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Smith said Franzatti has never been arrested before.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo