Coroner: Death of infant was intentional

BUTTE (AP) — A state medical examiner testified that the injuries that caused the death of a Butte infant were intentionally inflicted and did not result from being dropped on a carpeted floor as the baby’s father has suggested.

Willy Kemp testified Wednesday at the trial of Matthew John Blaz, who is charged with deliberate homicide in the August 2013 death of his daughter, Mattisyn.

Kemp said the baby suffered bleeding in her brain, neck and eyes and at least two skull fractures.

“It was a strong, forceful impact, at the very least,” Kemp told jurors, adding that the baby may also have been shaken.

Blaz, 32, has pleaded not guilty and told investigators he believed his daughter was injured when a neighbor boy dropped her.

The boy testified Tuesday that he did not pick up the baby, and he definitely did not drop her, which is what the then-12-year-old told investigators after the baby’s death.

Jurors on Wednesday were shown a police recording of an interview with Blaz shortly after the baby died.

He said he was talking with a mailman when both men heard the baby scream. Blaz told police he ran inside and saw the boy standing over his daughter.

“I seen him pick her up,” he said. “She was still crying at the top of her lungs.”

Blaz says he calmed the baby and put her to bed.

Blaz told police that he picked his wife up from work hours later and told her he wanted to show her a mark on the baby’s chest.

As soon as she looked at the baby she started screaming, he said. Mattisyn’s eyes were swollen shut and she wasn’t breathing.

The emergency room doctor testified Mattisyn’s injuries were not consistent with Blaz’s account and the mailman said he didn’t hear any cries the day the girl was fatally injured.