Albuquerque, NM — A 25-year-old Albuquerque man is charged with child abuse resulting in death after his 2-month-old son died days after receiving multiple head injuries while in his father’s care.

Spenser Phillips, 25, is accused of causing multiple head injuries to his son while the boy’s mother was at work.

Phillips originally told police the infant fell from a chair that was sitting on the floor in his living room while Phillips was in the kitchen.

The alleged abuse happened sometime in the afternoon or evening of May 29. The infant’s mother left for work around 3:30 p.m. that day and left the baby with Phillips.

She told police that when she returned home that evening, the baby was “unresponsive and pale” as Phillips looked over him in his crib. She suggested to Phillips they take him to the hospital.

The baby was taken to Lovelace Women’s Hospital, where Phillips did not tell medical staff of the baby’s head injuries. The baby was transferred to UNMH three hours later because of complications from a brain bleed. While at UNMH, Phillips told the baby’s mother the baby had fallen from his chair.

Albuquerque police interviewed Phillips, and his story did not match up with the baby’s mother’s version. Phillips told police that he was in the kitchen when the baby bounced while in the chair, which caused him to fall backwards and hit his head.

He said he delayed taking the baby to the hospital because he was “scared”, according to a police report.

When officers confronted him about inconsistencies in his story, he ended the police interview.

A subsequent search warrant executed on May 30 showed that the living room could not be seen from Phillips’s apartment’s kitchen, as well as other inconsistencies with Phillips’s story.

The boy died from his head injuries after days of medical care at UNMH on June 2.

A report released the next day by the Child Abuse Response Team noted the infant “had injuries that were diagnostic of abusive head trauma…not consistent with a short fall onto a carpeted floor… [he] is not going to survive his injuries”.

APD arrested Phillips Wednesday and charged him with child abuse resulting in death. He is being held on a $50,000 cash-only bond.