Introduction to Lucas's story

Lucas was born October 2, 2011.  He was a beautiful, healthy baby with so much promise and potential.  On Wednesday, February 8th, this was cruelly taken from him.  I got a call from my sister, Lisa, who struggled to form sentences, "Lucas is in the emergency room.  He's not breathing. they're doing CPR."  I was too shocked to speak for a moment, but when I could process this information, I asked, "WHAT HAPPENED?"  She said they believed he'd had some sort of seizure.  My brother had called her and was completely beside himself.  He was crying and having trouble breathing well enough to tell her about Lucas.  

CPR was performed on Lucas for over an hour in an attempt to save him.  A heartbeat was finally restored, and he was moved to Cook Children's hospital in Fort Worth and placed on life support in ICU.  Doctors there performed test after test, and it was determined that he had a subdural hematoma from trauma.  He had broken bones.  He was brain dead.  Our beautiful, sweet Lucas was brain dead.  Our family was shaken to the core.  We looked at each other, as if trying to decide if this nightmare was real or not.  What we didn't know yet was that the nightmare had only begun.  They suspected Shaken Baby Syndrome. 

Since my brother, Lucas's father, was with him at the time he became unresponsive, he was the one the investigators were mainly questioning.  No.  My sister and I looked up metabolic disorders like Infant Brittle Bone Syndrome, which can sometimes be mistaken for abuse.  There is NO way Brent would hurt any of his children.  He was hysterical when she talked to him on the phone, and the first time he saw Lucas on life support, he fainted.  While investigators were questioning him at the hospital in Wichita Falls, he kept saying, "will someone just tell me why my son is bleeding?".  He has a 6 year- old daughter from a previous marriage who is healthy, happy, and according to investigators, shows no signs or red flags of abuse.  She adores her father, and he adores her, and now the only way for them to see each other is a few moments a week in Wichita County jail.  Even his ex-wife and ex-mother-in-law told investigators he had never and would never hurt his daughter.  He is not and never has been a violent person.  He has a 3 year-old son with his current wife, and doctors did a full body scan on him as part of the investigation.  No physical signs of abuse.  No previous broken bones. 

Lucas was taken off of life support on Sunday, February 12th.  He was four months old.

We grieved his loss immensely, and all waited anxiously for the autopsy report to be released.  We wanted to know what happened to Lucas.  Unfortunately, our worst fears were confirmed.  The autopsy revealed his cause of death was blunt force trauma.  His death was ruled a homicide.  If Brent didn't shake Lucas, then who did?

I have never doubted my brother's innocence.   I will keep from resorting to speculation as much as possible, and share with you the facts in this case that are being ignored by investigators in Wichita County.  The facts should speak for themselves.

I will also demonstrate how my brother's Eighth Amendment rights have been completely ignored and that he is being wrongfully held.  He has no prior criminal record, and when officers called and told him they had a warrant for his arrest, he waited at home for them to come pick him up.  He did not try to run, and he did not resist arrest in any way.  And what was his bail set at, you might ask.  His bail was originally set at one million dollars.  ONE MILLION DOLLARS.  Whether you know him or not, and whether you are familiar with bail amounts or not (I will provide a list of comparable Wichita County arrests in a later post), this should terrify you.  Why?  Because if this can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.  The ONLY evidence they have against my brother is that he was with Lucas when Lucas became unresponsive.  If you are familiar at all with Shaken Baby Syndrome, you will understand the significance of this.  If you are not, I will certainly be outlining important points in another blog post as well.

I will be setting up a legal defense fund for him, so that he can have a more devoted attorney than the public defender, who means well, but is bogged down with many other cases.  It has to be filed with the IRS so that donations are tax-deductible, and I will post a link once the paperwork is done. 

I have cried and cried over this.  Cried for Lucas and the suffering he must have endured.  Cried for my brother, forced to mourn the death of his son from a jail cell, imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, and helpless to do anything about it.

Please help me share Lucas's story so that justice will be done, and the person responsible for his death will be arrested.  I know that statistically, fathers are more likely than mothers to harm children.  I also know that most people would jump to defend a family member.  I am asking that you consider the evidence in this case, which I will be posting every day until Brent is released, and help Lucas get the justice he deserves.  Our family has lost so much already, and we have been told to "let the system work".  But the system is not working, and we refuse to wait any longer.

Follow this blog for more details on the story, and if you have encouraging words for Brent, I will pass them along.  Also, if you have questions you would like addressed, post them in the comments.  Thanks for reading.

----jaime