Pulaski Man, 20, Charged After 8-Month-Old Suffers Severe Injuries

A 20-year-old Pulaski man is behind bars without bond after police say an 8-month-old suffered severe injuries that led investigators to file aggravated child abuse charges against him. Jaydon Alejandro Rosales was booked into the Giles County Jail this week following an investigation that stretched across two Middle Tennessee counties, according to police.

The case began when Columbia police notified the Pulaski Police Department Criminal Investigation Division about a possible child abuse incident in Pulaski, as reported by WSMV. Columbia police ultimately took Rosales into custody. A separate report from RocketCityNow identifies Pulaski Police Lt. Jordan Ramsey and Detective Sgt. Lake Foster as the investigators who led the case after receiving the initial notification from Columbia police on August 26.

Columbia and Pulaski sit roughly 31 miles apart along the U.S. Route 31 corridor, connecting Maury and Giles counties — a proximity that helps explain why officers from both departments ended up working the same case, per DistanceBetween.com.

Infant Airlifted to Nashville for Emergency Care

Police say the 8-month-old suffered severe injuries and was taken to a Nashville hospital, per the same account from WSMV. RocketCityNow reports the infant was transported specifically to Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt for emergency treatment. That facility operates a dedicated CARE Team, known as the Center for Child Protection and Well-Being, which performs multidisciplinary medical evaluations and specialized skeletal imaging on suspected abuse victims, according to earlier Hoodline reporting.

Rosales faces one count of aggravated child abuse along with four counts of reckless endangerment, according to WSMV. The exact nature of the infant's injuries and current condition, as well as the circumstances behind the four reckless endangerment counts, have not been detailed in available reporting. He remains held without bond at the Giles County Jail.

What Tennessee Law Says About the Charge

Because the victim is under age eight, the aggravated child abuse charge falls under what is commonly known as Haley's Law, Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-15-402, which classifies such offenses as a Class A felony — the state's most serious felony tier, carrying a mandatory 15 to 60 years in prison and fines up to $50,000, according to FindLaw. Tennessee also eliminated misdemeanor-level child abuse charges statewide effective July 1, 2025, meaning all substantiated child abuse cases must now be prosecuted as felonies, per the Barnes & Fersten Law Firm.

Felony cases originating in Pulaski typically begin with arraignments and preliminary hearings in Giles County General Sessions Court, held at the county courthouse in Pulaski, before a case can be bound over to a grand jury, according to Giles County Government. No schedule for Rosales's initial court appearance has been publicly reported.

A Pattern Seen Elsewhere in Middle Tennessee

This is not the first Class A felony aggravated child abuse case tied to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital that Hoodline has covered this month. Earlier in August, a White County man was sentenced to 22 years without parole after pleading guilty to the same charge for non-accidental injuries inflicted on an infant treated at the same hospital.

The pattern reflects broader data on child maltreatment in Tennessee. Infants under one year old represent the single largest demographic group of child abuse victims statewide, accounting for 34.5% of all documented cases in 2024, according to 2024 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services outcome statistics. A separate February report from the Tennessee Second Look Commission found physical abuse accounted for 9.5% of all severe child mistreatment cases investigated statewide in 2024, per WATN-TV.

Tennessee law also requires anyone who suspects child abuse to report it immediately to law enforcement or the Department of Children's Services, with failure to do so punishable as a Class A misdemeanor, per FindLaw. That mandatory-reporting framework helps explain the swift multi-agency response that led investigators from Columbia and Pulaski to coordinate on the case within a single day.