UPDATED: Bloomington man charged with critically injuring 5-month-old child

Jordan Powe, 27, of Bloomington. (Photo Bloomington Police Department)

 

By Neil Doyle and Howard Packowitz

BLOOMINGTON – A 27-year-old Bloomington man has been accused of critically injuring a 5-month old child.

Jordan Powe was taken into custody Thursday by Bloomington Police.  He was charged Friday by the McLean County State’s Attorney’s Office with aggravated domestic battery and aggravated battery of a child under 13 years old that caused a permanent disability.

According to Powe’s probable cause statement, he is the biological father of the Five-month-old infant.

BPD said officers were called Tuesday around 1:30 p.m. to a residence on Willedrob Road in Bloomington for an unresponsive 5-month old child. The child was taken to OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington, then was transported to OSF Children’s Hospital in Peoria where the child remains in critical condition.  Authorities said the incident is still under investigation.

During a mirandized interview, Powe admitted becoming frustrated with the infant because he was crying and not drinking his milk.

The statement says that Powe picked up the infant and shook him forcefully for approximately 30 seconds, laid the infant back in a bed and left him alone for approximately an hour.

The infant remains in the pediatric ICU and on a ventilator, continues to have seizures and is unable to move the right side of his body.

Long-term prognosis is currently unknown.

Powe is being held on a $400,000 cash bond.

This child is said to have been injured about the same time a McLean County jury returned guilty verdicts in the murder trial of Cynthia Baker, the woman from Normal convicted of beating 8-year-old stepdaughter Rica Rountree to death last January.

Neil Doyle can be reached at [email protected]

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…