4-Month-Old Baby Dead With Fractured Skull After Being Beaten To Death By Father

A 4-month-old baby reportedly died after her father brutally assaulted her, leaving the young victim with a fractured skull in their Lower East Side apartment on Saturday, April 23.

The victim, identified as little Cairo Sanchez-Dixon, who was rushed to NYU Hospital after she was found unconscious and unresponsive with head trauma, was reported dead on Monday morning, April 25, after undergoing treatment for two days at the facility, Daily News reported.

When the officers questioned the infant’s father, Ceferino Sanchez, 34, regarding the child's death, he claimed that he was feeding his daughter the night before when he grabbed her to break a fall. When the medical examiner’s office conducted an autopsy, the report revealed that Cairo had suffered severe head trauma including fractures to the rear and both sides of the skull. The injuries were reported to be consistent with a blow to the head, as well as a fall.

An investigation into the death determined that the child was injured inside the newborn's home on Madison Street, within NYCHA’s Vladeck Houses. The infant’s death was found to be a homicide, and Sanchez was arrested and charged with murder, manslaughter, reckless assault on a child, and assault on Tuesday, April 26, New York Post reported.

“It looks like she got punched square in the face,” a police source said.

Sanchez protested at a Manhattan Criminal Court appearance before he was held without bail. Meanwhile, the baby’s 33-year-old mother, who was in the apartment at the time of the murder, was not charged. The mother initially withheld the story of the murder from authorities because she was terrified of what Sanchez would do to her.

It was reported that the couple’s 3-year-old daughter was also home at the time of the incident. She was removed from the apartment by the Administration for Children’s Services. According to police officials, the mother and father have no previous domestic violence history.

Further investigation revealed that Sanchez was previously involved in a 2006 death of a 33-day-old baby who suffered blunt force trauma to the head. He was initially charged with endangering the welfare of a child. However, a grand jury ultimately declined to indict him and the charges were dropped.