Baytown father charged with capital murder in 7-week-old son's death

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Capital murder charges have been filed against a 26-year-old father in Baytown for his alleged involvement in the death of his 7-week-old son. 

Christopher Leon Jenkins is charged with capital murder after allegedly striking his child with a blunt object, hitting him with his hand, and applying violent "acceleration-deceleration forces" on the child.

Death of 7-week-old child

On July 25, 2025, emergency responders were called to an apartment unit on East James Avenue about a newborn not breathing.

According to court documents, emergency responders said they arrived at the home and found the baby lying on a mattress with no pulse, was not breathing, and had pink fluid coming out of his mouth. The infant was taken to Houston Methodist where he started breathing again. Medical officials reported the baby would be taken to Texas Children's Hospital.

Child Protective Service records state the child was admitted to the hospital for brain bleed and cardiac arrest. The medical team determined the injuries were due to abuse.

After seven days in the hospital, the seven-week-old was pronounced dead on Aug. 1.

Christopher L. Jenkins

Investigation into Christopher Jenkins

The backstory:

Investigators initially spoke to Jenkins, who said he put the infant to bed and when he woke up to check on the baby, he was not breathing. 

Court records state Jenkins was the only one at home with the seven-week-old when he stopped breathing. The mother reported to authorities she gave the child to Jenkins to watch while she was across the parking lot at her mother's home in the same apartment complex.

Jenkins told investigators multiple different stories about what happened to the infant and how he probably got injured.

A neighbor spoke to investigators and said on July 25, 2025, she heard Jenkins yelling at the infant to be quiet. The crying coming from the infant did not sound like his usual cry, according to the neighbor. 

During a voluntary walkthrough with investigators, court documents say Jenkins demonstrated how he had handled the child. He allegedly admitted to police "I lost my freaking head", said at one point he was feeling "a little anger", and "something just clicked" because the infant would not stop crying. He then demonstrated throwing the child, which resulted in the infant bouncing off the bed onto the floor.

Jenkins told authorities he picked up the baby and shook him to check if he was alive. According to Jenkins, the infant's body was limp at this time.

Court records claim detectives spoke with Jenkins about when he called 911. He said he called 911 before he left to go get the infant's mother from across the parking lot at the other apartment unit. However, after reviewing calls, officials determined Jenkins called 911 after going to get the mother. At the same time he called, it is believed the grandmother had also called 911.

On Feb. 26, officials reported the cause of death to be blunt trauma to the head with subdural hemorrhage.