Father charged with assault of wife, endangerment of baby
Apr. 24—A Joplin father was charged with misdemeanor assault of his wife and felony endangerment of their 3-month-old child after allegedly pulling his wife across the floor, wresting their baby from her arms and dropping the child.
Jacob D. Womack, 24, made an initial appearance on the charges Wednesday in Jasper County Circuit Court and remains in custody on a $50,000 cash bond with his next hearing date set on May 1.
An officer responding to a disturbance Friday at the couple's residence on South Moffet Avenue learned from Womack's wife that she had come home and found her husband acting "extremely odd." She said he grabbed their baby out of its crib and was holding him in what she regarded as an unsafe manner.
She took the baby away from him, and he purportedly grabbed his wife and pulled her across the floor and tried to pull the baby away from her by the child's limbs, according to a probable-cause affidavit. In the course of yanking on the baby's limbs, the child fell to the floor, hitting its head, his wife told police.
Jeff Lehr is a reporter for The Joplin Globe.
