Jason Getzfreid

Authorities say a Powell man killed his 4-month-old daughter last month, with charging documents alleging that he may have fatally shaken the infant.

Last week, Park County prosecutors charged Jason D. Getzfreid, 27, with first-degree murder, alleging Getzfreid physically abused the girl and caused her death.

As of Wednesday, he remained in the Cody jail, with bail set at $1 million.

Prosecutors allege that Getzfreid brought his daughter to Powell Valley Healthcare’s emergency room on the morning of Aug. 22 and indicated to a nurse that he had shaken the infant.

In her medical records — which were obtained by the Park County Sheriff’s Office and summarized in charging documents — the nurse quoted Getzfreid as saying that “sometimes you just get frustrated, you know, and you try not to.” He then raised his hands to demonstrate holding and shook his hands, the nurse reportedly wrote.

Subsequent X-rays and a CAT scan revealed injuries that appeared to be “non-accidental in nature,” and Powell Valley Healthcare personnel contacted the sheriff’s office, Investigator Jed Ehlers wrote in an affidavit.

Dr. Scott Sullivan, who reviewed the medical images, told a deputy he saw evidence of new and old trauma in the infant’s head “that was typical of non-accidental injuries over a period of time,” Ehlers wrote.

The 4-month-old was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City for more advanced treatment, and Getzfreid and his wife traveled to Utah to be with her. However, by the following morning, the child was nonresponsive and she was declared dead on Aug. 27, according to Ehlers’ affidavit.

Dr. Tagrid Ruiz Maldonado, who specializes in child abuse pediatrics at the Salt Lake hospital, said “the injuries sustained by [the child] were likely the result of violent acceleration and deceleration, and consistent with some form of shaking injury in the absence of a car accident, or complex stair fall,” Ehlers wrote.

Getzfreid reportedly told the sheriff’s office that the infant was hurt when she “rolled off the couch and hit her head on the floor” on the morning of Aug. 22; investigators with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation later found that would have been a drop of 15 to 16 inches.

However, in a later report, Ruiz Maldonado and Dr. Kristine Campbell said the injuries did not seem to be associated with a fall — and the pathologist who performed an autopsy said the same thing, according to Ehlers’ affidavit.

“Furthermore, the injuries identified are not plausibly explained by benign events or reasonable discipline,” Ruiz Maldonado and Campbell are quoted as saying in the report. “These findings are consistent with inflicted injury and child physical abuse.”

Getzfreid’s wife — who was reportedly at work at the time of the incident — told the sheriff’s office that the baby had been fussy and crying earlier that morning; Getzfreid also mentioned that the girl had been crying before her alleged fall off the couch, the affidavit says. He brought the baby to the PVHC emergency room sometime around 6:20 a.m., which was roughly 40 minutes after his wife left for work, according to the accounts laid out in Ehlers’ affidavit.

The investigator and an agent from the Wyoming Department of Family Services attempted to conduct a follow-up interview with Getzfreid, “but he declined to provide further information,” Ehlers said.

On Sept. 8, after obtaining surveillance camera footage of the PVHC emergency room and lobby, Ehlers said he again attempted to interview Getzfreid at his Powell workplace. However, Ehlers said the suspect was “uncooperative and evasive” and he arrested Getzfreid at the business.

At a Friday hearing in Park County Circuit Court, Deputy Park County Attorney Larry Eichele asked for bail to be set at $1 million, citing “the seriousness of this case and the public safety concern.”

For his part, Getzfreid asked if it would be possible to be released.

“I understand the severeness of what’s being said, but is there any way that I could please get out to be my wife in this [hard] time for us? It’s already rough enough,” he said. “I understand the severity thing, I just really want to be out with my wife in this time.”

However, Judge Bruce Waters went with the state’s recommendation.

“This involves the death of a small child, so the million dollars, I think that seems appropriate under the circumstances,” Waters said.

He described the alleged crime as “a severe threat to the public” and said the serious nature of the allegation could tempt Getzfreid to flee the area.

A preliminary hearing on the charge of first-degree murder — where a judge will determine if there’s enough evidence for the to move from circuit to district court — is tentaively set for Friday. A conviction for the charge would carry a minimum sentence of life imprisonment.