Court documents detail why Colorado Springs father was charged with his infant’s murder

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - A Colorado Springs man has been charged with the murder of his 2-month-old daughter.

The Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) says that On May 26, 2021, CSPD's Crimes Against Children Unit was notified by a local hospital of a severely injured infant who was under three months of age and had been brought to the hospital by the child’s parents.

According to CSPD, the infant died due to their injuries on June 2, 2021.

In November 2021, the El Paso County Coroner ruled the infant's death a homicide.

On June 28, 2024, CSPD's Crimes Against Children Detectives applied for and were granted an arrest warrant for the child’s father, 24-year-old Josiah Whiteley, for the charge of Murder in the First Degree.

Court documents show that at the hospital, Whiteley claimed he and the child had been in an accident where he struck a transformer box. Whiteley said he was driving home late from his uncle's house and swerved to avoid a raccoon. Whiteley claims that the child was in a car seat however, the base was missing so the infant was not secured properly.

According to documents, Whiteley told police the child seemed fine and only had a red mark on her forehead where he believed a bottle struck her. He didn't feel the accident was serious enough to warrant reporting it to law enforcement.

Court documents state that the medical records from the hospital say that the injuries the infant had were not consistent with the "reported history" of a car crash. The medical records also indicated that the child's injuries were most consistent with nonaccidental trauma.

Police obtained a search warrant for Whiteley's phone and Facebook. Court records show that Whiteley was at a house on Pikes Peak Ave. where his girlfriend and her friends were. Facebook messages show that Whiteley was asking about getting cocaine from a friend.

Court documents detail that the girlfriend's friend showed police a video of her holding the child in the early morning hours of May 26 and that the child appeared to be in good health at the time of the video.

According to law enforcement, Whiteley's story changed multiple times regarding where he was that night. He failed to tell anyone about the crash for almost 3 hours and waited nearly 10 hours to take the infant to the hospital. Medical records also stated that the infant's injuries were most consistent with nonaccidental trauma. Due to these circumstances, CSPD found probable cause to charge Whiteley for First-Degree Murder.

Whiteley is currently incarcerated on unrelated charges at a state correctional facility.

Anyone with information or who is a witness to this investigation is asked to call the Colorado Springs Police Department at (719) 444-7000; or if you wish to remain anonymous, you may call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at (719) 634-STOP (7867) or 1-800-222-8477.