UPDATE: Dajuan Barnes pleaded not guilty and asked for a jury trial on Wednesday. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- A man has been arrested and charged with murder after an 10-month-old baby was found dead with a broken spinal cord, said Tallahassee Police.
Police were called to an apartment on the 1500 block of Blountstown Street to help assist emergency medical teams after receiving a report of a baby who was not breathing.
The baby was transported to the hospital, where he later died, said police.
Dajuan Barnes was arrested on charges of second degree murder.
Police documents say that the child had been sick and was running a fever when his mother went to the store Friday night to get him more medicine.
Emergency crews arrived on the scene just before 8 p.m. and found the child lying on the couch in the apartment. The mother told them that the victim had been throwing up and running a fever. Court documents note that while the woman was talking with police she was "visibly upset and crying."
Barnes, the mother's boyfriend, was the one who called 911. He told police that the child threw up on him and he became concerned with how the child was acting so he called 911.
Court documents say that Barnes changed his story when questioned at the scene. They said that he was still watching the movie Dracula while being questioned by police.
Documents show that when he found out about the baby's death, his demeanor never changed.
It is what the medical examiner found during the autopsy that led to Barnes being arrested and charged with second degree murder.
According to the probable cause document filed by the officer on the case, "Dr. Clark explained to me that this would be an extremely hard blow to the body of the infant, and he had never witnessed this type of severity in his career as a Medical Examiner."
According to Dr. Clark, the baby was slammed against another object so forcefully that it broke the baby’s back and caused the baby to bleed to death.
Barnes is no stranger to trouble with the law. According to the Clerk of Court's website, he has an extensive criminal history with charges ranging from aggravated battery to murder.
In 2013, Barnes was found not guilty in the death of Jessie Rollins. The three other defendants in the case were convicted.
Months later, he would find himself back behind bars for drugs. Those charges were eventually dropped.
Assistant State Attorney Jack Campbell prosecuted him back in 2013 and is working on this case as well. He says he wasn't surprised at Barnes first arrest after his acquittal and this arrest is like Deja-Vu except this time he's hoping for a conviction.
"It's unfortunate that people involved in criminal cases are involved in another. And this is true of Mr. Barnes, this is not his first brush. The Tallahassee Police Department did a great job last time and I'm proud of the work TPD has done... Investigator Dawes worked through the weekend. So I'm certainly hoping we're able to stop his crimes from happening in the future," said Campbell.
Meanwhile, the Department of Children and Families has released an official statement regarding the death of baby J.
"The murder of this child is absolutely horrific. We have immediately opened an investigation into the circumstances of this case and are deploying a team to examine our prior interactions with this family to determine if anything could have been done to prevent such a terrible act from taking place," said Secretary Mike Carroll.
As of Sunday morning, Barnes is still in a Leon County Jail and no bond has been set.
