South Natomas Man, 22, Arrested a Year After Infant Found Unresponsive

A 22-year-old Sacramento man has been arrested and booked into jail more than a year after a 4-month-old infant was rushed to a South Natomas fire station unresponsive, in a case the Sacramento County Coroner's Office has now ruled a homicide. Victor Weaver was taken into custody Tuesday, August 25, and booked into Sacramento County Main Jail, according to the Sacramento Police Department.

The case dates back to just after 9 a.m. on August 14, 2025, when Sacramento police officers responded to reports of an unresponsive 4-month-old who had been brought to a fire station from a residence in the 1700 block of West El Camino Avenue, according to a Sacramento Police Department news release. The infant was transported to an area hospital, where the child was later pronounced deceased. That fire station, Sacramento Fire Station 15, sits at 1640 West El Camino Avenue, positioned directly adjacent to the residence — a likely reason those in the home brought the infant straight to first responders rather than waiting for an ambulance, per local records from the City of Sacramento.

A Homicide Ruling Takes Shape

Homicide detectives and crime scene investigators took over the case that same day, processing the scene, interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence, police said. The Sacramento County Coroner's Office ultimately determined the death was a homicide, though the coroner's office has not yet released the identity of the deceased child, saying that will happen only after next-of-kin have been notified.

The roughly year-long gap between the infant's death and Tuesday's arrest reflects the multi-step forensic and legal process California law requires in unexpected infant deaths. Under state protocols, unexpected infant deaths require comprehensive multidisciplinary autopsies, toxicological screening and medical reviews — a process that frequently takes months to determine whether a death was accidental or a homicide, according to the California Department of Public Health. Only after that forensic work is complete do homicide detectives typically consult with deputy district attorneys in the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office Homicide Unit to evaluate the evidence and pursue an arrest warrant, a procedural step outlined in Hoodline's earlier coverage of a similar Sacramento infant-death case.

Suspect Identified, Warrant Secured

Detectives identified Weaver, of Sacramento, as the suspect in the case and secured a homicide arrest warrant for him, police said. He was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail at 651 I Street in downtown Sacramento, the roughly 2,400-bed facility that serves as the county's primary intake and pre-trial detention site. Police have not publicly disclosed the exact relationship between Weaver and the infant, and that detail remains an open question in the case.

If prosecutors ultimately charge Weaver under California Penal Code Section 273ab, which applies to adult caregivers who assault a child under eight with force likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in death, he would face a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in state prison upon conviction, according to Eisner Gorin LLP. That statute has been applied in at least one other recent Sacramento case: in December, a jury convicted father Alexander Coffey of second-degree murder and child assault causing death for shaking his 7-month-old son, resulting in the same 25-years-to-life sentence, as Hoodline reported at the time.

Part of a Troubling Local Pattern

Weaver's arrest comes just days after another Sacramento father, 27-year-old Emari Thompson, was booked into the same county jail on murder charges after his 11-month-old son was found unresponsive in the city's Pocket-Greenhaven neighborhood, underscoring what has become a recurring pattern of fatal infant-injury investigations handled by Sacramento police homicide detectives this year. The West El Camino Avenue corridor itself has seen other violent incidents in recent years, including an October 2024 shooting outside an apartment complex in the 2000 block that left two adults dead and a minor wounded, according to ABC10.

Sacramento police are asking anyone with information about the case to contact the department's dispatch center at (916) 808-5471. Callers can also remain anonymous by contacting Sacramento Valley Crime Stoppers at (916) 443-HELP (4357) or by submitting tips through the free P3 Tips smartphone app, with anonymous tipsters potentially eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.