This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A jury on Thursday acquitted a Vernal man who was accused of abusing and killing his 6-month-old son in 2014.
After a two-week trial in 8th District Court, 29-year-old Chad Lewis Rogers was declared not guilty of child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony.
The case has caused the Department of Child and Family Services to take away Rogers' two other children, defense attorney Bryan Sidwell said, and forced his wife to divorce him to keep custody of their children. He's also had a hard time finding work, Sidwell said.
"I'm glad we won, but these are difficult cases for the state. They're difficult for everybody," he said. "Nobody likes to see a baby die."
In the early hours of Aug. 24, 2014, after Rogers gave the baby a bottle of milk and left the child's room, he heard the baby choking, he told police. He returned, picked up the baby, set him back down and "slightly" shook him "by the shoulders" in an attempt to get the baby to respond, court documents say. His wife came in and saw the baby go "limp in Chad's arms, unresponsive and [he] turned blue," court documents say. She called 911, and Rogers performed CPR until an ambulance arrived.
Doctors at the hospital found bleeding in the baby's brain, and he was taken by helicopter to Primary Children's Hospital, where he died three days later, documents say. The baby died of forced trauma to the head, a medical examiner said, indicating that the child may have died from abuse, possibly from being shaken.
Rogers was arrested March 4, 2015, and charged with the baby's death the next day.
Sidwell said that during the trial, the jury heard testimony from eight doctors. Four doctors and a medical examiner testified that the injury was "significant" and would have caused "immediate, persistent symptoms," said Uintah County Attorney Mark Thomas.
But Sidwell said other doctors who testified during the trial disagreed, stating that the injury may have occurred hours earlier during an accident such as a fall, without immediate symptoms.
The jury acquitted Rogers of the charges, but Sidwell said he's not sure anyone can truly understand what Rogers has been through, having spent years accused of killing his child. Thomas declined to comment on the verdict.
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