AURORA, Colo. — A man has pleaded guilty to a child abuse charge in connection with the 2022 death of his son, according to court records.
Eddie Meyers, 28, pleaded guilty May 23 to a felony charge of child abuse negligently causing death. A murder charge and another child abuse charge were dismissed as part of the plea agreement, according to court records.
Meyers and the child's mother, Taja Shannon, were both charged in the case.
According to a 2023 grand jury indictment, Meyers brought the couple's 29-day-old son to Children's Hospital in Aurora in September 2017. At the hospital, Meyers told police the child had stopped breathing and had been resuscitated, the court documents say. Hospital staff examined the child and determined he had multiple injuries that were "non-accidental," the indictment says.
In mid-October 2017, the infant improved enough to be discharged into the care of a "medical foster home." It was noted in the indictment, the child never learned to crawl or talk and was fed through a feeding tube. He was also blind as a result of the injuries and had been "in and out" of hospice care since 2018.
In June of that year, a detective consulted with the District Attorney's office and they determined at that time, the case "lacked sufficient evidence" to support charging Shannon or Meyers. The case was closed.
The child was again admitted to hospice care in late 2022 and succumbed to his injuries in December of that year. The Arapahoe County Coroner determined his manner of death was homicide and detectives reopened the case.
Shannon pleaded guilty in January 2024 to one count of accessory to a crime and was sentenced to community corrections.
Meyers was sentenced July 15 to 24 years in prison.
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