Father pleads guilty in infant abuse case

The father of a baby who was severely abused in the summer of 2008 has pleaded guilty to failing to protect the child.

Christopher Santiago, 26, will be sentenced on Jan. 22 to six years in prison and five years probation for risk of injury to a minor.

Santiago took the then-3-month-old to the hospital in August 2008 and doctors at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital and the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center determined the child had been abused.

A doctor said the baby had "multiple unexplained serious physical injuries, including fractures sustained in at least two different time frames."  He suffered a fractured skull and 11 fractured ribs. His left leg was broken in two places and he had bruises, abrasions and swelling on his abdomen and elsewhere. The child was released to the care of the Department of Children and Families and has been placed in a home with adoptive parents.

Santiago was initially charged with abusing the baby, but the circumstances of the case changed after the child’s mother, Charley French-Cochise committed suicide in April. The mother had implicated her husband, Santiago, as the abuser during a New London Police investigation of the crime, but wrote a suicide not saying it was she who had abused the baby, not Santiago. Santiago then claimed he had kept silent to protect his troubled, drug-addicted wife.