FULTON COUNTY, Ga. – A Georgia man was convicted last week of putting antifreeze in his newborn baby’s breast milk and was subsequently sentenced to spend the next four decades in prison.
Following a week-long trial, Curtis L. Jack, 48, was convicted Thursday of attempted murder and cruelty to children in Fulton County. He reportedly tried to poison his 18-day-old baby since he wanted the child’s mother to abort the pregnancy.
On Oct. 20, 2020, the South Fulton Police Department responded to the Children’s Health Care of Atlanta regarding a complaint of child cruelty, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
Staff members at the hospital told police that an 18-day-old baby tested positive for antifreeze in her system. The mother told officers she was in the hospital after giving birth when she gave Jack 10 bags of breast milk to take to her mother’s home.
The newborn’s mother didn’t believe Jack nor her mom would harm the infant and had no idea how antifreeze got into the baby’s system.
Within less than 24 hours of drinking the milk, police wrote in a news release, the newborn became “critically ill” and was suspected of being poisoned, reported northjersey.com.
The baby was taken to a local hospital, where she tested positive for ethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze.
The mother told investigator’s that she rebuffed Jack’s request to abort the baby, which appeared to be motivation to harm the child.
Jack was interviewed by detectives. Initially, he denied poisoning the baby, but later acknowledged mixing antifreeze in with the breastmilk, Law&Crime reported.
“After speaking further to Mr. Jack and advising him to just tell the truth Mr. Jack stated that he did put antifreeze in the baby’s milk,” the arrest warrant said. “Mr. Jack stated he did not want the child and he told [the mother] to get rid of the child. Mr. Jack did state he was remorseful for what he did.”
Ingesting even a small amount of antifreeze could lead to permanent brain and kidney damage, according to Poison Control.
However, the child survived the poisoning and is now expected to be all right, police said.
Upon serving a sentence of 40 years in prison, Jack will be on probation for 10 years.
