This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Charges under which a 28-year-old Millcreek man is booked into jail have been changed to child abuse homicide after a toddler died from drowning.
Unified Police Lt. Lex Bell said that Codey Levi Jolley had been arrested Friday and booked into the Utah County jail on suspicion of attempted child abuse homicide after 18-month-old Ethan Antes was flown to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City in critical condition.
On Monday, booking records had been changed to first-degree child abuse homicide, along with third-degree felony child abuse resulting in serious physical injury.
Jolley, who remained behind bars without bail, told police that he had left his stepson in the tub to play while he did household chores and cooked a burrito. An unspecified time later, according to a probable cause statement, he found the child face down in the bathtub of his apartment, at 362 E. 4115 South, shortly before 9 p.m. Friday.
"Doctors found the child's injuries to be inconsistent with accidental drowning. After interviewing Codey Jolley and collecting evidence from the scene, detectives booked him into jail," Bell stated.
Other injuries doctors allegedly found included first- and second-degree scalding burns to the head and torso, and head trauma from what Jolley said was a fall from an earlier fall high chair.
The child was pronounced dead at 9:52 a.m. Sunday.
Bell said on Monday that an autopsy was planned, after which detectives expect to as prosecutors to formally amend charges against Jolley.
"Our hearts go out to baby Ethan's family as they deal with this tragic loss," he said.
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