New
charges added in infant murder case
Byline: Warren
Cornwall
Published: 06/20/98
A
Rexburg teen-ager charged with beating and shaking his infant son to death also
broke the boy's ribs and his leg in the preceding weeks, prosecutors charged
yesterday.
A new criminal complaint filed Friday in 7th District Court adds several
abuse-related charges to the 1st degree murder charge already faced by Benjamin
Genther, 19. The additional charges, filed by Madison County Prosecutor Sid
Brown, include one count of felony injury to a child and two counts of
aggravated battery, also felonies.
Rexburg police had earlier said they were investigating injuries 2-month-old
William Genther suffered before his death on April 17. The list of injuries
identified by Police Chief Lynn Archibald included bruising near the child's
eye, bleeding into the white of one of his eyes and a broken leg.
Police
say an autopsy showed the child died from being violently shaken and battered.
Friday's charges describe fatal injuries, including brain hemorrhaging, central
nervous system damage and bleeding in the retinas.
Genther has said he accidentally dropped the child while lifting him out of a
crib, according to Rexburg Police Sgt. Roy Klingler, who testified at an earlier
probable cause hearing. When told the fall could not have caused the boy's
injuries, Genther then said he shook the child after the boy stopped breathing,
Klingler said at the hearing.
According
to the new charges, Genther broke the boy's ribs some time between March 13 and
April 14 of this year, and broke his leg between March 13 and April 7. The
murder charge also elaborates on the earlier complaint, stating that Genther
killed the boy "by torture when the torture was inflicted with the intent
to cause said child suffering or to satisfy some sadistic inclination of the
Defendant."
Genther's attorney, Brent Eames, said his client denied the charges against him.
Eames did not elaborate on the denial.
Police
have previously said physicians treated William Genther for injuries in the
weeks before he died. A neighbor, Tracy Backman, has also said she saw the child
with a bruise near his eye and a bloodshot eye. Genther or his wife told her the
injuries came from accidents, Backman said.
The
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, which investigates reports of possible
abuse, had no reports of being contacted about the Genthers before the death,
Health and Welfare officials said.
Genther
is scheduled to appear in magistrate court June 23 for a preliminary hearing. At
the hearing, Magistrate Mark Rammell must decide whether there is enough
evidence against Genther to justify sending the case to District Court.
