Trial ordered for man in 5-week-old girl’s death
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A western Pennsylvania man accused of killing his 5-week-old daughter by fracturing her skull during bath time has been ordered to stand trial.
Thirty-year-old Joseph Swidorsky is charged in Allegheny County with criminal homicide and child endangerment in the June death of Braelyn Swidorsky.
Authorities said that the child’s mother reported finding him holding the pale and unresponsive infant. Authorities said he told investigators that the child was crying in the bath and then suddenly took a big gulp of air and stopped breathing. The medical examiner’s office said she died from a skull fracture and brain hemorrhaging.
Defense attorney Pat Thomassey argued that there was no evidence that his client harmed the child. He said an unexplained injury on a child “doesn’t always mean that someone intentionally inflicted it.”