Wasilla man jailed on murder charges for child’s death

WASILLA — A man carrying for a 23-month-old when he died March 21 alleges that the boy slipped and fell, causing his death. But two doctors who examined the boy’s injuries say they were inconsistent with a fall; more like injuries from a pedestrian vs. car crash.

“Dr. (Ken) Gallagher (with the state medical examiner’s office) reported that the fractured rib and the tear of the aorta were consistent with major blunt force trauma,” Wasilla Police Officer Daniel Bennett wrote in a court filing. “Dr. Gallagher stated that the injuries were inconsistent with a fall in the bathtub.”

Based on that, Wasilla police made the decision to charge Jyzyk John Sharpe, 40, who was caring for the boy when he died, with second-degree murder. He was arrested Thursday in Anchorage.

According to Bennett’s affidavit, the call to respond to Quincy Circle for a report of a boy not breathing came in at 1:09 p.m., March 21.

Sharpe told officers that he was getting the boy and his twin 4-year-old sisters ready for a shower, according to Bennett’s affidavit. Sharpe was himself undressing to join the children in the shower when he said the boy fell.

“I saw him step over and I could hear a fall, ah ah slippery fall, I walk over and look and it was a split second you just knew, instantly, instantly, instantly,” Sharpe is quoted as saying in Bennett’s affidavit.

Sharpe told a first-responder that he believed he broke the boy’s ribs trying to give him CPR. Dr. Gallagher, however, disagrees and reported that the fractured rib and other internal injuries he found could not have been caused by performing CPR.

Bennett writes that Sharpe seemed agitated and was “displaying involuntary body movements.” That continued later at the hospital, where Sharpe went to be with the boy’s family.

Later, Bennett talked to the boy’s mother, who said that she was trouble getting through to Sharpe, her calls kept dropping on her way back to the Valley from Anchorage.

“I finally get to a place where I can hear him and he says I’m getting everybody dressed to leave. I say, like, what and he says (the boy) is non-responsive. I say you hang up and call 911,” the mother is quoted as saying to Bennett.

Bennett writes that he did a search of the home and found blood on a wall. He said he asked the mother about it and she said that one of the boy’s sisters had pushed the boy and his lip had started bleeding. She said later after the toddler had been given a “time out” to sit near that wall, she saw blood on the wall and figured he must have started bleeding again.

Bennett writes that he also found a mirror with powder and straws on it — the powder was being tested at the crime lab as of the filing of his affidavit — and that the mother admitted it was cocaine and that it was hers, not Sharpe’s.

She told Bennett that Sharpe was good with the kids, that he treated them like they were his own and that he was not violent with them, preferring time-outs to corporal punishment.

Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, a Valley doctor consulted as an expert in forensic medicine in numerous trials, examined the boy’s autopsy report and agreed with Gallagher.

“Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson stated that the type of injuries described on (the boy) would be consistent with those injuries she has seen inflicted on a pedestrian that had been struck by a vehicle,” Bennett says in his affidavit. “Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson also indicated the injuries could not have come from CPR, falling in the shower or the 4-year-old twins. She indicated this injury could only have occurred from severe blunt force trauma.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.