Trial for Two Rivers man charged in 2018 death of 2-month-old girl set this week in Manitowoc County Circuit Court
Fulfilling our obligation: This report is part of the Herald Times Reporter's mission to follow criminal cases from arrest to their conclusion.
MANITOWOC - Matthew Brown-Edwards is set to plead his case in a jury trial this week.
The 27-year-old Two Rivers man is accused of abusing a 2-month-old baby girl who died as a result of that abuse in January 2018.
Brown-Edwards has been charged with homicide in the infant's death.
According to the criminal complaint, rescue workers were called to Brown-Edwards' Two Rivers home on Jan. 17, 2018, for a baby found unconscious and not breathing.
The infant was transported to a local hospital and then flown to Children's Wisconsin Hospital in Milwaukee for life-threatening injuries.
Shortly after being flown to Milwaukee, the 2-month-old child died in the hospital.
Brown-Edwards told police several stories about what had happened to the child, the complaint said. First, he said the baby had fallen on the floor from the couch where he left her while making her a bottle. He also claimed she hit the coffee table when she fell.
He then changed his story to say he was holding the baby to comfort her when he accidentally dropped her, but that she seemed OK when he put her in a baby swing.
Eventually, the complaint said he told police he picked up the baby and shook her forcefully when she wouldn't stop crying and then dropped her on the floor while shaking her.
According to the complaint, Brown-Edwards told police that when he dropped the baby, her eyes rolled back and she stopped moving. He said he tried to give her CPR like he had seen in the movies, but then put her back in the swing and left her there for the rest of the afternoon. When he found that she had stopped breathing and was unresponsive, he and his girlfriend called 911.
His girlfriend, the baby's mother, was away from home when the suspected abuse happened, picking up snow pants for her older child. According to the complaint, she told police her daughter appeared to be sleeping in the swing when she came home that afternoon. Eventually, Brown-Edwards called to her that the baby seemed unresponsive, and they called 911.
An autopsy done by a Milwaukee doctor showed the baby's injuries and death were consistent with blunt trauma to the head and severe physical abuse and "the child's injuries are inconsistent with a short household fall and are consistent with the last history provided to law enforcement involving a frustration with crying, shaking of the infant and impact while dropping the child."
Brown-Edwards told police he did not initially tell the truth about what happened to the baby because he was afraid of losing his girlfriend and the things people would say about him, the complaint said.
Brown-Edwards faces two felony charges — first-degree reckless homicide and child abuse — and a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia. He has been incarcerated at the Manitowoc County Jail on a $150,000 bond since his arrest in 2018.
First-degree reckless homicide is a Class B felony and is punishable by up to 60 years in prison.
His trial will begin Monday and is scheduled for the entire week through July 1 in the Branch 1 courtroom at the Manitowoc County Courthouse.
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Contact Alisa Schafer at aschafer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AlisaMSchafer.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Trial for Matthew Brown-Edwards in 2018 Two Rivers infant death begins
