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BEAVER — Nine months after the mother of a 23-day-old baby boy was charged with aggravated murder in the death of her son, detectives have now also arrested the infant's father.
Joshua Lee Downey, 27, of Milford, Beaver County, was booked into the Beaver County Jail on Thursday. He was charged Friday in 5th District Court with aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, and aggravated child abuse, a second-degree felony, and accused of failing to take his son to the doctor or seeking help from any authorities, even though investigators say he knew his son had been abused.
In September, Journey-Lyric Downey died due to shaken baby syndrome, according to prosecutors. His mother, Tawna Steed, 32, of Beaver, was charged in October with aggravated murder, a first-degree felony.
Downey had told police that he had seen Steed shake the baby on two occasions and once saw her shaking the child "vigorously" and yelling for the "stupid baby to stop crying," according to her charging documents.
"Josh said he had literally looked at her and saw her shaking the infant. Josh described Tawna holding the infant around his diaphragm and he felt that she was tense and probably holding onto him too hard. The infant started crying so Josh took the infant from Tawna," the police booking affidavit involving Downey's arrest states.
Downey said there was also a second time when he saw Steed shaking the child.
"According to Josh, the infant was not responding to him after he grabbed the infant away from Tawna. Josh said the infant was breathing really shallow, so Josh took him outside in order to get him fresh air," the affidavit states.
According to the autopsy, "the infant had multiple healing rib fractures and at least two separate brain hemorrhages, which would have occurred by someone shaking the infant or some other type of blunt force trauma causing death," the arrest report alleges.
During the court proceedings for Steed, her defense attorney subpoenaed local doctor offices in November for information regarding the infant's medical records, including doctor appointments that were missed. A preliminary hearing for Steed is scheduled to begin Aug. 4.
In June, the Beaver County Sheriff's Office questioned Downey again and asked him why he never called anyone but his mother to get help for his son.
"Josh said he was scared, he wasn't sure what was going on, and didn't know if he was going to completely lose the infant to the state. I confirmed with Josh that he had known something was wrong with the infant. According to Josh, he did know something was wrong with the infant because he had walked in on Tawna shaking the infant," the affidavit states.
During the interview, Downey also claimed that about a week after his son was born and came home from the hospital, "Tawna would give the infant Tylenol two to three times a day, almost every day," according to the affidavit. He allegedly said he regrets not taking his son to his scheduled medical appointments after his birth and that he had "failed" his son.
"Josh told Tawna to cancel the last doctor's appointment because he was afraid they would take the infant away from him," according to the affidavit.
Josh was then asked "if he feels somewhat responsible for the infant's death. Josh said, 'I honestly feel like I am because I didn't take him to the hospital like I should have, like a father should have and if I feel like if I was able to taken him to the hospital, I, like we said before, I'm sure he'd still probably be here," the affidavit says.
