North St. Paul man on trial for killing infant he promised to raise as his own

Louis D. Jones, 26, had fallen in "love at first sight" with Rebecca Shaw, now 25, and promised to stay with her and raise her baby as his own, his defense attorney Karmen McQuitty told a jury in a St. Paul courtroom Friday.

It didn't quite work out that way. Jones is on trial in Ramsey County District Court charged with second-degree unintentional felony murder in the death of Rhania Jones before she was even 2 months old.

Although Jones wasn't the biological father, Shaw put his name on Rhania's birth certificate when she was born Dec. 30, 2008.

Jones was watching Rhania at the couple's apartment in North St. Paul on Feb. 27, 2009, while Shaw was at work in Edina. She got home about 7 p.m., and went out a short while later to get some diapers. When she returned, she noticed that the baby seemed to be having trouble breathing.

Shaw and Jones rushed Rhania to Regions Hospital in St. Paul. Soon afterward, the baby was transferred to St. Paul Children's Hospital.

Dr. Patrick Graupman , a pediatric neurosurgeon at Children's, testified Friday that based on a CT scan, his pre-operative diagnosis was a kind of head injury almost always caused by trauma. As he performed surgery to decrease the pressure on the brain, that diagnosis was confirmed, he said, and Rhania's brain swelled rapidly.

"It's a very dramatic, awful thing to see," he said. It also means, he said, that the injury is probably unsurvivable.

Rhania was taken off life support and died on March 4, 2009.

Jones told police he patted Rhania on her back when she began to choke. Later, he said she fell off the couch.

The baby's grandmother Ozell Shaw testified that she often watched Rhania and that the baby had no problems.

Shaw was heard bursting into sobs as she left the courtroom.