Nygell Easter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nygell was three months old when he ended up at an Indianapolis hospital in December 2010. Medical personnel suspected abuse and called DCS. The agency opened an investigation. But it was closed with an "unsubstantiated" finding in January 2011 after the family blamed Nygell's older brother for the injury.

 

Less than two months later, Nygell was dead. Once again, his family tried to blame Nygell's fatal head injury on his one year old brother. An investigation by police and the coroner, however, determined the injury could not have happened the way the family described, and his father Nicholas Easter who was convicted one year earlier for sexual misconduct with a minor faces murder charges.

 

Paramedics and police arrived after Easter called for help. Easter claimed Nygell had been placed unstrapped on a bed in a car seat and that the seat had fallen onto the floor while he was in the bathroom. Nygell suffered several blows to the head that would have required great force. The coroner's office ruled that Nygell died of blunt-force trauma to the head. Nygell had bruises on his forehead, right arm, upper right chest and left rib cage. The coroner estimated Nygell had been killed a half hour before he was brought to Community Hospital North, where he was pronounced dead.  

 

Easter was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Nygell’s mother Alexis Lahr defended Easter, saying their son’s death wasn't intentional. "I don't believe that. I don't believe he did it. I can't tell you what happened. He's an amazing person, good-hearted and kind," she said.