Hayden man sentenced to 10 years in prison for breaking infant’s legs, ribs

A 28-year-old Hayden man was sentenced last week to at least five years in prison for inflicting 25 bone fractures on an infant, according to the Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office.

William J. Baures was convicted of felony injury to a child, which stems from Dec. 25 when deputies responded to Kootenai Health for a 5-week-old child who was brought into the emergency room with a fractured femur, prosecutors said in a news release.

Investigators learned Baures abused the infant for several weeks, causing more than two dozen fractures, including multiple leg and rib fractures, according to the release. Baures allegedly squeezed, shook and threw the baby, as well as pulled his legs, pushed on his shoulders and tried to pop the infant’s back.

Baures indicated he was sleep-deprived and trying to get the infant to calm down when he caused many of the injuries, according to prosecutors. Baures demonstrated the abuse he inflicted on the infant to law enforcement by using a doll, and at one point folded the doll in half to show his abuse, the release said.

Injury to a child is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

District Judge Barry McHugh sentenced Baures on June 30 to 10 years in prison with parole eligibility after five years.