Hogan pleads guilty to criminal negligence causing death of 9-month-old

According to the statement signed by Hogan, his lawyers and the Crown, Austin had been suffering from cold symptoms since April 18, including runny nose, cough, and fever. Two teeth had cut through his gums, and he was vomiting.

Three days later, his grandmother was babysitting him. He once again had a cold but was feeling better the next day. She noticed while babysitting that his buttocks were bruised. On the 26th, Austin was vomiting, was “clingy” and crying more than usual but did not have a fever. The evening of the 27th saw Austin, still ailing, sleeping in his crib. His mother, Jasmine Wright, went to bed while Tyler Hogan slept on the couch.

At 3 a.m. the next day, Austin vomited, waking up Hogan and he brought him to the couch. He continued to vomit and scream. At 6 a.m. his mother brought him to sleep with her in bed while Hogan slept again on the couch.

By 9:30, Austin appeared to have settled down. Wright’s plan was to go to work to open up the business, then return home. Austin had a 1 p.m. doctor’s appointment. She placed Austin next to Hogan on the bed, then went to work.

At around 9:45 a.m. Hogan attempted to feed Pedialyte by bottle to Austin, but he started crying. Hogan tried to calm him by playing with him, picking up under the arms and tossing him onto a pile of pillows, blankets, and a foam mattress topper next to the bed on the hardwood floor. In that same area there were a fan, a bag of objects, and an open dresser drawer, but it isn’t known if Austin hit any of those objects.

“Almost immediately after Austin was tossed beside the bed, Austin went into extreme medical distress,” the statement reads. “Austin pulled his head back, went limp, and stopped breathing.”

Hogan, in the statement, acknowledges that his actions contributed directly to Austin’s death, knowing that the child was not old enough to feed himself, that it’s dangerous to give fluids to such a young child and then “toss” him, that he was likely vulnerable (having been vomiting over recent days and hours), that the floor was hardwood, that the bottom drawer of the nearby dresser was partly open, that there were other hard objects nearby, and so was the wall.

He tried to clear Austin’s mouth, but couldn’t. At around 10 a.m. he phoned Wright, explaining the circumstances, and she came right home, arriving at around 10:05 and calling 911. Hogan admits in the statement that he should have called 911 earlier.

Austin wasn’t breathing and had no pulse when paramedics arrived at around 10:15. The 911 operator had instructed Wright how to perform CPR, and she was doing so. Paramedics intubated Austin, removed fluid similar to Pedialyte, and took to hospital where he was declared dead.

Police worked with incorrect opinion on cause of death.

Police initially considered Austin’s death suspicious but not criminal. An autopsy performed by the Medical Examiner’s office in Calgary determined that the primary cause of death was multiple blunt force traumas causing brain and spinal injuries, all of which happened in a time frame between three days and seven hours before his death.

But members of Lethbridge Police had been given a different preliminary opinion from an expert not with the medical examiner’s office, stating incorrectly that the multiple blunt force trauma injuries happened between Wright leaving for work and when she returned. At this point, on July 27, Hogan had been arrested for murder and was re-interviewed.

Given this information, thought incorrectly by police to be accurate, Hogan then admitted for the first time that he had tossed Austin from the bed just after giving him Pedialyte. He also admitted to knowing about the hard objects in the vicinity. The scene was re-enacted by Hogan for police, in a video that was shown to the court.

“It was a total accident,” Hogan says in the video, crying. “I wasn’t trying to hurt him.” When asked by police why he didn’t call 911 sooner, Hogan replied that he thought he could do something.

Court heard this was the second video re-enactment of that day’s events. The first had been done by both Hogan and Wright, along with separate interviews, the afternoon following Austin’s death.

In the statement of facts, Hogan admits that his actions – and his inactions – constituted criminal negligence leading to the death of Austin Wright.

Earlier injuries

The statement of facts states that both Hogan and Wright deny inflicting the injuries found during the autopsy. While they were Austin’s only caregivers during the time frame specified by the medical examiner’s office, it cannot be proven when the injuries happened or who inflicted them.

It also can’t be proven whether they even knew about the injuries, given Austin’s medical condition at the time. Earlier, the statement explains Austin had been at the stage where he was starting to crawl and was bumping into things.

The statement of facts says that, according to a different expert, when Hogan was trying to feed Austin Pedialyte just before tossing him from the bed, the child would have had difficulty swallowing due to his brain and spinal injuries.

Crown statement thanks police

Outside the courtroom, Crown prosecutor Mac Vomburg provided reporters with a brief statement acknowledging the professionalism and dedication of Lethbridge Police in what he called a complicated investigation.

“This is a very sad and tragic case,” he added.

by Geoff Smith (@GeoffSmithLNN on Twitter)

Hogan pleads guilty to criminal negligence causing death of 9-month-old

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