Mattisyn Jolene Blaz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matthew Blaz was well known to child services personnel and police. Just two weeks after Mattisyn was born on June 25, 2013, he came home drunk, grabbed his wife by her hair and threw her to the kitchen floor while she clung to the newborn. Jennifer Blaz said a child protective services worker visited the day after her husband's attack, spoke with her briefly and left. Her husband pleaded guilty to assault and was ordered by a judge to take anger management classes and stay away from his wife. Convinced he had changed, his wife allowed him to return to the home.

 

Mattisyn Blaz was in a vehicle with her parents in a business' parking lot when they called 911 and said Mattisyn wasn't breathing. By the time Mattisyn saw a doctor, she was unresponsive after suffering skull fractures and significant brain bleeding. The autopsy report states Mattisyn died after suffering hemorrhages in her brain, neck and eyes and at least two skull fractures. The medical examiner determined in his 19 page autopsy report, she may have been shaken but also struck, causing the abusive head trauma. In the words of a prosecutor her father spiked her "like a football."

 

Blaz told police in a recorded interview he picked up his wife from work and wanted to show her a mark on Mattisyn’s chest. "I told my wife, 'You need to see this,'" Blaz said, adding that as soon as she looked at Mattisyn, his wife started screaming. Mattisyn’s eyes swelled shut, she wasn't breathing and her color had changed dramatically.

 

Blaz was found guilty on deliberate homicide in May of 2014. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.