Utah foster parent accused of ‘tossing’ infant, causing life-threatening injuries

VERNAL, Utah — A foster parent accused of “tossing” an 8-month-old boy, causing life-threatening injuries, has been arrested in Uintah County.

Skyler Cox, 37, was booked into the Uintah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated child abuse.

Uintah County sheriff’s deputies were called to Cox’s home on Wednesday on a report that “the infant had become unresponsive after being bathed,” according to a police booking affidavit. Police described both Cox and his wife as foster parents and said the two performed CPR on the boy prior to emergency crews arriving.

At the hospital, deputies were informed by doctors that “the timeline given (by Cox) did not appear to match” and that the injuries were indicative of possible abuse, the affidavit states.

When questioned by detectives, Cox admitted that the infant cries a lot “and this causes him to get frustrated with him.” He then said that after giving the infant a bath, “he had shaken and then tossed the baby on the bed due to being frustrated about him crying, but was unsure how (he) had landed on the bed or if the baby had bounced at all and was not sure if (the infant) had hit his head on the wall,” according to the affidavit.

“Skyler stated that after he noticed (the child) was unresponsive, he took him into the shower to wake him up but this ultimately failed, so he then yelled for (his wife to call 911),” the arrest report says.

Doctors determined the baby suffered a brain bleed and was transferred to a trauma hospital “to better treat his life-threatening medical issues,” deputies wrote.