Saginaw man pleads no contest in shaken-baby case

Saginaw County Courthouse addresses coronavirus outbreak

A view of the Saginaw County Courthouse after Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson delivered a statement addressing their work flow amid the coronavirus outbreak in Saginaw on Friday, March 13, 2020.Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com

SAGINAW, MI — Originally facing a life offense, a Saginaw man accused of shaking a baby has pleaded to a lesser charge.

Waylon G. Bebout, 23, on Oct. 23 appeared via Zoom before Saginaw County Circuit Judge Manvel Trice III and pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree child abuse. The charge has a maximum potential penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.

In exchange for his plea, the prosecution agreed to dismiss a count of first-degree child abuse, which is punishable by up to life in prison.

By pleading no contest as opposed to guilty, Bebout did not admit to having committed a crime. Trice then had to rely on other documentation to enter a conviction on the record.

The case against Bebout dates back more than two years.

In September 2018, a mother brought her 1-year-old daughter to the Covenant HealthCare emergency room in Saginaw. The infant was suffering from seizure-like symptoms, prosecutors have alleged.

Prosecutors believed the injuries were caused by the child having been shaken.

Police began investigating and developed Bebout, the mother’s then-boyfriend, as a suspect.

“Babies have very weak neck muscles that cannot fully support their proportionately large heads,” states the American Association of Neurological Surgeons on its website. “Severe shaking causes the baby’s head to move violently back and forth, resulting in serious and sometimes fatal brain injury.”

Judge Trice is to sentence Bebout at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 11.

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