Casper Man Charged With Child Abuse, Victim Born in 2019 Needed Brain Surgery
A Casper man is facing aggravated child abuse charges after he allegedly slammed a small child that was born in 2019 into a wall according to charges filed this week in Natrona County District Court.
Andrew Izack Sherman is charged with a single count of aggravated child abuse for events that are alleged to have occurred on January 6. If convicted, he faces between 10 and 25 years behind bars.
He hasn't had an opportunity to enter pleas to the charges. Sherman is also charged with sexual abuse of a minor in a separate case.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, police responded to Wyoming Medical Center the evening of January 6 for a report of a child abuse call.
There, a neurologist told police that he'd just completed brain surgery and that the victim would need to be life-flighted to Children's Hospital of Colorado because WMC did not have the resources to provide the child with future care.
Court documents state Sherman was in an "on-again-off-again" relationship with the child's mother and she had left the child with Sherman while she ran errands with her mother and sister.
When the child's mother arrived home, Sherman was holding the baby who was reported to be acting funny. Sherman reportedly told the child's family not to call 911.
Initially, court documents state, Sherman told the child's family that the child fell in the bathtub. However, Sherman eventually claimed that he dropped the child in the bathtub and they hit their head on the rim.
According to the affidavit, neighbors in the apartment complex told police that roughly 20 minutes before emergency services arrived, they heard a loud bang which was described as if a plate or a cup was thrown at the wall.
When police went to the apartment to investigate, police found an indentation in a shared wall with another apartment. They also found the victim's hair inside a wall.
During an interview with detectives, Sherman reportedly continued claiming that he dropped the child and they possibly hit their head on the edge of the bathtub. When detectives pressed him and said the child's injuries weren't consistent with the story, he said he didn't care because he wasn't there, court documents state.
According to the affidavit, detectives showed Sherman a picture of the indented and told him that hair was found in it. He reportedly said he had no knowledge of a damaged wall.
Court documents state that Sherman told police twice that he did not slam the child's into a wall. Detectives note that they never mentioned the child being slammed or thrown into a wall.
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