A Baytown father is now facing a capital murder charge in the death of his 7-week-old son, nearly nine months after the infant was found unresponsive inside the family's apartment. The baby later died at Texas Children's Hospital, and an autopsy determined he suffered blunt-force trauma to the head. The child's father is being held in the Harris County Jail with bond denied and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
According to court documents reviewed by Click2Houston, officers were called to the family's Baytown apartment on July 25, 2025, where they found the 7-week-old unclothed and unresponsive on a mattress, with pink fluid coming from his mouth. A relative performed CPR and briefly restored the baby's breathing before medics arrived. The infant was first taken to Houston Methodist Baytown and then transferred to Texas Children's Hospital, where he died seven days later, as reported by the Houston Chronicle.
How investigators say it happened
Court documents state that a witness heard the baby's father, identified as Christopher Leon Jenkins, yelling "shut up" while the infant was crying, and that the crying stopped shortly afterward. Investigators allege Jenkins gave several conflicting explanations of what happened. In one version, which he demonstrated using a doll, he reportedly threw the doll onto a bed and said it bounced off and hit the floor. An autopsy later determined the baby died from blunt-force trauma to the head, according to ABC13 Houston.
Capital charge and what it means
Jenkins has been charged with capital murder, an offense that under Texas law includes the killing of a child younger than 10 years old. The Texas Penal Code classifies capital murder as a capital felony, and a conviction can be punished by death or by life in prison without the possibility of parole if prosecutors seek the death penalty. The statutory language is set out in the Texas Penal Code, with penalty provisions detailed in Section 12.31.
Charges were filed on Friday, and Jenkins was arrested over the weekend. Online records show he was booked into the Harris County Jail, where a judge denied him bond. The Houston Chronicle reports that a court-appointed public defender represented Jenkins at a probable-cause hearing on Monday, and prosecutors have not yet said whether they will seek the death penalty.
