Celina man held in infant beating death

CELINA - A Celina man is in jail today, charged in the death of his 11-month-old step-son.

Jason Thomas is being held on charges of felonious assault and reckless homicide in connection with the death of Kole Mathew Atkins, who died Friday morning at Children's Medical Center in Dayton.

Celina Police Chief David Slusser said the injuries that killed the child were inflicted Wednesday. Officers responded with emergency personnel just after 7 p.m. Wednesday to 119 Garmin Ave. on a call that a child was injured and had stopped breathing. The child was eventually taken to Children's Medical Center, where he died from his injuries early Friday.

Family members were interviewed at the home, where Thomas lived with his mother and his wife of one month, the infant's mother, Slusser said. Detectives followed up the next day at the hospital. The stories told by the family and information from the hospital staff led them to suspect abuse. The discovery that Thomas was allegedly home alone with the baby made him a suspect.

"Information from staff indicated some type of abuse had led to injuries. The extent of the injuries didn't lend itself to any type of accident or self-inflicted injury," Slusser said. "From what we've determined he was by himself with the child at the time."

On Thursday, as police investigated the case, Thomas's mother called to say her son was missing and distraught over the child and accusations of his involvement in the injuries. Family members later found him sitting on an uncle's grave at Swamp College Cemetery, holding a knife and threatening to hurt himself.

"Family members had gotten the knife away from him before we arrived or just as we arrived. We discovered he had taken some pills, so he was taken Coldwater Hospital to be checked out at the emergency room," Slusser said.

Thomas was interviewed again by police Thursday and inconsistencies in his story led them to charge him with felonious assault, a second-degree felony. When the child died Friday morning, Slusser conferred with prosecutors and added the third-degree reckless homicide charge.

An autopsy performed Friday by the Montgomery County Coroner's office found injuries inconsistent with Thomas's explanation of the situation, Slusser said. The full report was not complete Friday night, but the coroner reported severe trauma to the baby's head, body and extremities, including broken bones. Slusser said he could not say if the child had been beaten over a longer period of time, but that the injuries that killed him were recent.

"The injuries involved in the death were injuries that occurred within hours of the call," Slusser said.

Thomas is being held on $1 million bond. A funeral service for Kole Atkins is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at First United Church of Christ in New Knoxville.