By Staff
A Lacey’s Spring man has been charged with murder in the death of his infant son.
James Robert Hill Jr., 31, of 15 Dry Creek Cove Road, is being held in Morgan County Jail on $250,000 bond.
Hill was charged after deputies responded to his home Oct. 29 after officials at Crestwood Hospital in Huntsville reported Hill’s common-law wife, Christan Atchley, was being treated in the emergency room. Hospital workers said examinations revealed Atchley had just given birth, but she denied she had. Deputies went to the mobile home Hill and Atchley shared and found a new born baby stuffed into a clothes basket.
The Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences performed an autopsy and preliminary reports indicate the baby was alive at birth. It listed the preliminary cause of death as blunt force trauma, with indications of strangulations. The baby weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces and was 19 inches long and appeared healthy.
No charges have been filed against Atchley. The couple had a six-month old son that died a year ago, but a Morgan County Grand Jury ruled that accidental.