Court records say the 7-week-old boy died days after he was found unresponsive inside an East James Avenue apartment.

BAYTOWN, Texas — A Harris County capital murder case accuses Christopher Leon Jenkins of fatally injuring his 7-week-old son during a July 2025 night inside a Baytown apartment, where investigators say the baby was alone in his care.

The charge moved into court nearly nine months after medics were called to the apartment and found the infant without a pulse. Prosecutors have tied the case to statements, witness accounts, medical findings and a police walkthrough in which Jenkins allegedly used an infant death investigation doll to show what happened.

Jenkins, 26, was arrested in late April and booked into the Harris County Jail after charges were filed. Court records cited by local outlets say a judge found probable cause for the case to proceed, and a no-bond hearing was scheduled as prosecutors weighed the next steps. Jenkins has been charged with capital murder, a charge that can apply in Texas when the victim is a child younger than 10. His defense has not been tested in court, and the allegations remain accusations unless proven. Attorney Kathryn Kahle told Oxygen that Jenkins had not yet entered a plea and said, “We look forward to vigorously defending Mr. Jenkins in court.” The case is assigned in Harris County, with Baytown police and prosecutors relying on the affidavit to lay out the events leading to the child’s death.

The affidavit says first responders were sent July 25, 2025, to an apartment at 2500 East James Ave. for a report that a newborn was choking or not breathing. Medics found the baby lying unclothed on a mattress, with no pulse, no breathing and pink fluid coming from his mouth. The child was taken for treatment and later transferred to Texas Children’s Hospital, where medical staff reported brain bleeding and cardiac arrest, according to reports on the court records. The infant died Aug. 1, seven days after the emergency call. Authorities later said an autopsy found blunt force trauma to the head and ruled the death a homicide. Investigators said the fatal injuries occurred during a period when the child was solely with Jenkins and the child’s mother was nearby in another apartment with her mother.

The child’s mother told investigators she had handed the baby to Jenkins before going to another unit in the complex, according to the affidavit. About 20 minutes later, Jenkins allegedly came to that apartment and said something was wrong with the child. A 911 call followed. Investigators said Jenkins first reported that the infant had been sleeping and that he stepped outside to smoke a cigarette before returning to find him unresponsive. The affidavit says his account later changed. He allegedly said he may have dropped the baby while feeding him, then gave another explanation involving a bath. Police wrote that those accounts did not match the injuries described by doctors or the timeline built from witness statements and emergency response records.

Investigators also interviewed a witness who said she heard Jenkins yelling while the baby was crying. The witness told police she heard him tell the child to “shut up” shortly before the crying stopped, according to court documents described in local reports. The same witness reported an earlier incident involving a stroller, saying she once saw Jenkins lift the baby with one arm after the child began to cry. The affidavit does not say that the witness saw the fatal injuries occur. It does, however, place the witness account near the timeline prosecutors say is central to the charge. Police used the statement with the medical findings, the mother’s account and Jenkins’ own reported comments to build the probable cause filing.

During a later walkthrough at the apartment, investigators gave Jenkins a SUIDI doll, a specialty doll used in sudden unexpected infant death investigations, and asked him to treat it as he would the child, according to the affidavit. Jenkins allegedly asked whether he could throw the doll, then threw it onto the bed while describing how the baby moved. He told investigators the infant “bounced so high” and landed on the floor, the affidavit says. He allegedly crawled across the bed, picked the baby up and placed him back on the bed. Police said he then demonstrated shaking the doll’s chest area while explaining how he tried to determine whether the child was alive.

The affidavit says Jenkins later told investigators the baby’s crying overwhelmed him. “There was too much crying in my mind,” he allegedly said. In another reported statement, Jenkins said, “It just clicked.” Investigators wrote that he admitted becoming angry when the baby cried and described throwing or dropping the child, then shaking him after picking him up from the floor. Police said he estimated about 15 minutes passed between picking the infant up, putting him on the bed and calling 911. That alleged delay is part of the timeline prosecutors are expected to use as the case advances. The affidavit does not state that investigators recovered a weapon, and reports describe the fatal injury as blunt force trauma rather than a single publicly identified object.

The case sits at the intersection of a medical death investigation and a homicide prosecution. Doctors treated the infant for severe injuries after the July 25 call, and the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences later identified blunt force head trauma as the cause of death, according to reports on the records. FOX 26 reported that charging documents also referred to subdural hemorrhage and violent acceleration-deceleration forces. Those details are likely to matter in court because prosecutors will need to connect the medical findings to Jenkins’ alleged conduct and to the time when the baby was in his care. Defense attorneys can challenge the state’s witnesses, medical interpretation and the weight of the alleged statements.

Harris County prosecutors have not publicly announced whether they will seek the death penalty, according to local reporting. Capital murder cases can follow different paths depending on that decision, including additional hearings and filings before trial. The court also must address bond, discovery, any motions over Jenkins’ statements and the handling of medical and police evidence. The affidavit gives the prosecution’s account, but a jury would have to decide guilt if the case goes to trial. As of the latest reports, Jenkins remained in custody, and the case was moving through Harris County criminal court after the probable cause finding.

The East James Avenue apartment complex became the center of the investigation after the 911 call, with family members, a neighbor, medics, police and hospital staff all entering the timeline in different ways. The child’s mother reported being in a nearby unit when Jenkins came over, and a witness described hearing the crying stop after yelling. The infant, whose name has not been widely released in local reports, lived only seven weeks. Investigators have focused on the brief window before the emergency call, Jenkins’ changing accounts and the medical evidence from the week between the injury report and the child’s death.

Jenkins’ case remains pending in Harris County, where future hearings are expected to address custody status, evidence and trial scheduling. The capital murder charge remains an allegation, and the next court milestones will determine how prosecutors and the defense frame the July 2025 death for a judge or jury.

Author note: Last updated May 20, 2026.