New dad beats baby to death while mom works, Florida cops say. ‘Beautiful baby girl’
A 4-month-old baby left with her dad while her mom worked was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries, a Florida sheriff’s office said.
Now, her dad is accused of manslaughter.
Jacob Kubai, 22, was with his daughter, Willow, and the baby’s mom, Kubai’s wife, on Feb. 22 when they dropped the mother off at work, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a March 6 news conference.
Kubai brought the baby, who they called ‘Strawberry,’ back to their home in Bartow, and he told deputies he started cooking dinner, Judd said.
Soon after he realized he was missing an ingredient and told investigators he took ‘Strawberry’ with him to Walmart to get some chicken broth, the sheriff said.
When investigators later looked at security tapes from Walmart, they saw that Kubai was alone and had left the baby at their home while shopping, Judd said.
“We watch him shop, then he comes to the line for self-checkout with no baby,” Judd said.
Kubai told investigators when he got home ‘Strawberry’ was fine and that he fed her and checked her every 10 minutes, according to the sheriff.
Kubai told investigators that about an hour later, ‘Strawberry’ was ‘unresponsive’ when he checked on her, and that he tried CPR before bringing her to the hospital, Judd said.
Doctors at the hospital noticed the baby had significant injuries, the sheriff said, and the Bartow Police Department was brought in to investigate.
The little girl died two days later, Bartow Police Chief Andy Ray said in the news conference.
The medical examiner conducted an autopsy and found multiple serious injuries, Judd said.
“They discovered that night that the baby had a skull fracture, that the child had multiple impact bruises to the forehead, that the baby had 10 ribs fractured, that she had a hemorrhage in her spine, that she had multiple layers of brain bleeds. Still, the baby fought for life and lived for two more days before she died,” Judd said.
The injuries to her forehead were caused by a minimum of 10 blows, the sheriff said, and her broken ribs came from being squeezed.
The sheriff’s office later learned Kubai had left the baby alone before on at least two occasions, according to a March 6 news release, and that some of the ribs were in various stages of healing.
“The baby was literally beaten to death, and the only person that was home with the baby at the time was Jacob,” Judd said.
After initial interviews with investigators, Judd said Kubai started to say things like “None of this is real,” and “My wife’s not real, my baby’s not real.” The sheriff said investigators believe these comments were a ruse.
The sheriff’s office said the baby’s mom, who works two jobs while Kubai takes care of the child, was not believed to be involved in the alleged abuse.
“Death investigations can often take many months before they are complete. In this case, the injuries to this beautiful baby girl were so severe that it left no doubt how she was killed,” Judd said in the release.
Kubai was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, aggravated child abuse and knowingly abusing a child without bodily harm, according to the sheriff’s office.
Bartow is a 40-mile drive west of Tampa.
This story was originally published March 7, 2024 at 8:10 AM with the headline "New dad beats baby to death while mom works, Florida cops say. ‘Beautiful baby girl’."
