Cops: Dad charged in baby’s death head-butted boy

AURORA | An Aurora dad accused of killing his 3-month-old son told police he head-butted the infant last month, according to court documents, a blow

investigators say fractured the boy’s skull.

Aiden Martin Holguin died Sept. 21, six days after police say his dad, 22-year-old Martin Fernando Holguin, Jr. head-butted the baby at the family’s apartment near East 16th Avenue and Hanover Street.

Holguin has been charged with child abuse resulting in death and is being held in the Adams County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond.

According to an arrest affidavit filed against Holguin, police responded to the home Sept. 15 on a report of an unresponsive infant. There, emergency crews found the tot unconscious and rushed him to nearby Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Hospital staff later discovered a y-shaped fracture on the boy’s skull just above his ear and said he suffered severe head trauma.

Initially, Holguin told investigators that he had no idea what could have happened to the boy. He told police Aiden had been fussy for a few days and was sitting in a bouncy chair in the living room when he suddenly what looked like a seizure.

A day after Aiden was rushed to the hospital, Holguin seemed angry when police asked him if he struck his son.

“Can I stop you there?” he told investigators. “What kind of f**king sick person would f**king hit their newborn that can’t defend themselves?”

He went on to tell police that the tot’s injuries may have been the result of the baby accidentally hitting his head on Holguin’s a few days earlier, or the boy accidentally hitting his head on a door jam.

Police spoke to medical experts who said it wasn’t possible for the boy’s injuries to have been caused the way his dad said they were.

Detectives also interviewed Holguin’s wife, who was at work when Aiden was injured, and she said she didn’t know of any incidents that could have caused the injuries.

Police interviewed Holguin again Oct. 10 and he told them he head-butted Aiden.

He said he was frustrated because he couldn’t find a job and was unhappy in his marriage. “Everything was building up on me,” he told investigators.

That day, Aiden was crying and it stressed him out. “I just grabbed him and head-butted him,” he said. After the head-butt, Aiden started crying louder, Holguin said, and he tried to apologize to the boy.

“I’m sorry buddy. I didn’t mean to head butt you,” he said he told Aiden.

Holguin told investigators that the head-butt wasn’t intentional, that his body was getting more and more tense and the head-butt seemed to come out of nowhere.

After the interview, police arrested Holguin. Initially, according to court records, police planned to charge him with first-degree murder as well as child abuse, but he was formally charged  Thursday only with child abuse, a charge that typically carries a sentence of up to 48 years in prison.

Holguin is due in court again Dec.10.