Police: Man killed baby in 'fit of frustration'

A Westwood father is accused of hitting his 3-month-old daughter in the face with a closed fist "in a fit of frustration" because she would not stop crying, Cincinnati police said.

The baby, Asia Cathey, was pronounced dead early Tuesday, hours after the 9:02 p.m. attack inside the family's McFarlan Road apartment.

Her father, Shavale Johnson, 24, was being held on a $200,000 bond at the Hamilton County jail on a child endangering charge Tuesday morning. That afternoon, homicide detectives signed the additional charge of aggravated murder.

Johnson admitted to police he punched the baby "in a fit of frustration" because she would not stop crying, police wrote in court records.

Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said the autopsy on the infant concluded she died from head trauma.

Coroner's officials are still reviewing medical evidence and will finalize their investigation over the next few days. It's too soon to tell whether the baby was hit multiple times, whether she was shaken or a combination of both, Sammarco said.

"This is the hardest part of my job," she said. "Most of us in our office are parents and it is hard to imagine what would drive someone to hurt a child, especially a child who is 3 months old. It really saddens everyone in the building to have a child in our morgue."

The baby's mother called 911 about midnight, and the child was taken to the hospital while Johnson remained behind at the family's residence, said Lt. Tim Brown, the night police chief.

Hospital authorities alerted police, who went to the apartment. They talked to Johnson and arrested him at about 2:30 a.m.

Johnson's attorney declined to comment in court Tuesday morning, but his mother and sister defended him.

They said that he has another daughter, 1, who is with her mother somewhere else.

"He doesn't hit his kids. It's a lie," said Caress Johnson, 24, his twin sister. "He doesn't hit his kids. He plays with them."

When told her brother confessed to punching the baby in the face, she responded that he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

"He has mental problems," she said. "He would say yes to anything."

The infant's mother does not face charges, Miller said.

She could not be reached Tuesday at her apartment, where neighbors say the couple live with four other children.

Steve Wilder, who lives upstairs, said the infant's mother knocked on his door at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, crying, and told him her daughter died.

She told him she was inside the bathroom when the baby was hurt, he said. She didn't tell him Johnson was suspected.

"She said she came out and the baby had blood coming out of her nose and eyes were in the back in her head," Wilder, 48, said. "But she didn't say anything about abuse or anything. I told her I would say a prayer for her. I am kind of in shock right now."

The Hamilton County Department of Job & Family Services is investigating.

Johnson was arrested in December on an assault charge that was later dismissed.

According to court records, a female acquaintance told Cheviot police he punched her in the face Dec. 3, causing her lip to bleed, at a residence in the 3700 block of Dina Avenue.

He also pleaded no contest to an April 2013 charge of disorderly conduct while intoxicated.

Johnson was accused of urinating on a public sidewalk while yelling obscenities, causing a disturbance, Cincinnati police wrote in a complaint.