Jan. 26—Joshua M. Feldman, a Kokomo man whose 1-month-old daughter suffered multiple fractures and a brain bleed under his care, was sentenced to 4 years in the Indiana Department of Correction.

Two of those years will be spent on in-home detention, according to court documents, while the remaining two years will be on supervised probation.

Earlier this week, Feldman pled guilty to a level 3 felony charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury for his role in the October 2022 incident.

Per terms of the plea agreement, another level 3 felony charge of battery with serious bodily injury to a person under 14 was dismissed during Feldman’s sentencing hearing.

On Oct. 11, 2022, law enforcement officers were called to Community Howard Regional Health in reference to a report of possible child abuse, court documents indicated.

While on scene, investigators spoke with the baby’s parents, including Feldman, who said he was home alone with his daughter and was feeding her when he received a telephone call, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Feldman said he then took the infant to his bedroom and put her down in a bassinet as he spoke on the phone, per his interview with police.

When he went back to pick her up, according to Feldman’s police interview, he noticed the infant’s head “deep into the corner of the bassinet.”

When he went to pick her up, the infant “began to scream in a much worse way than normal,” Feldman told authorities, and the infant had a small bump on the back of her head.

Feldman added that when the infant’s mother came home a few minutes later, she also reportedly observed a “slight bruising” to the baby’s face and swelling that increased over time.

Around two hours later, the couple reportedly took the infant to the emergency room, where medical staff deemed her to have several skull fractures, bleeding on the brain and a possible femur fracture, according to court records.

And according to the medical report, those injuries were more likely to be imposed on the infant than they were to be “self-sustained,” court documents stated.

Both Feldman and the infant’s mother told investigators they didn’t know how the baby sustained the reported injuries, though court documents note Feldman did ask authorities if he’d be arrested in connection with the child’s injuries.

In a subsequent interview with investigators, Feldman also provided multiple “possible” scenarios for how the infant might have sustained her injuries, per court documents, and he was reportedly very animated in doing so.

Feldman has a right to appeal his sentence in the case, not his conviction, and it’s unclear whether he will do so.

Officials also note this current sentence will run consecutively with any sentence imposed in another one of Feldman’s cases.

Last month, Feldman was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery, and he is scheduled to appear in court on that matter next month.