Hillsborough jury acquits father in son's death

Hector Jaiman always said he didn't kill his 5-month-old son.

Today, a jury sided with him.

The panel deliberated for about seven hours before acquitting Jaiman of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

Jaiman testified his son, Hector IV, was fine when the two retired for the night at a relative's Brandon home on Jan. 31, 2008. He said he placed the baby on the queen-sized bed to watch the lights of the television while he called the child's mother in Boston.

Jaiman told jurors he nodded off but awoke with a start about 4 a.m. and panicked when he reached for his son and couldn't find him.

"I was freaking out," Jaiman testified.

He said he found his son wedged face-down between the bed and the adjoining dresser.

"I snatched him up," he said. "I was telling him, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'"

When he discovered his son wasn't breathing, he put him on the floor and began CPR, just like he had seen on television - using both hands to pump the child's chest and blowing air into the tiny mouth. He said he couldn't remember how many times he repeated those actions.

"I wasn't counting. I was pumping and blowing."

He said he picked up the baby and ran into the living room shouting for help. His aunt called 911. Jaiman said it was then he learned he had performed CPR the wrong way on such a small child.

When emergency responders arrived, the boy was cold to the touch, he wasn't breathing and his heart wasn't pumping. About an hour-long attempt to resuscitate the child failed.

Nine months later, the medical examiner's office determined the death wasn't an accident. The child's injuries included broken ribs, a ruptured bowel and internal bleeding.

Police didn't arrest Jaiman until June 2009 when he was taken into custody at his father's home in Pennsylvania.

Defense attorneys said the broken ribs came weeks before the baby's death when he fell off a bed in his parents' Boston apartment. They said the other injuries must have been caused by the attempts at CPR.

Both sides called doctors to back up their positions.

On the night of his son's death, deputies handcuffed Jaiman at the scene, saying he was interfering with the child's treatment. They then took him into custody for emergency psychiatric evaluation under the state's Baker Act.

Jaiman admitted losing it that night but said he was concerned about his son and upset that deputies wouldn't let him go to the hospital.

He told jurors he started banging his head against a table in hopes deputies would be forced to take him with his son.