The father of a 5-month-old baby boy who died with a blood alcohol content of .04 will spend a year in prison after a conviction on a risk of injury charge.
Police arrested Jorge E. Chiclana, of Bridgeport, in May 2015, just over a year after his son's death.
Police began investigating on May 16, 2014 after first responders were dispatched to an apartment on Ely Avenue in Norwalk because a baby had stopped breathing.
Emergency personnel tried to revive the infant and brought him to Norwalk Hospital, but the baby couldn't be saved.
On Aug. 18, 2014, the office of the chief medical examiner revealed to police that the baby had alcohol in his liver tissue and urine. Police followed up with the child's parents and sent the bottle to a state lab for testing, according to the warrant. Those tests showed the bottle in 5-month-old Jacob Isaiah Chiclana's crib contained 25 percent alcohol, enough to make a 50-proof cocktail.
Police again questioned Jacob's mother, who first said she didn't remember who had prepared the child's bottle that day and insisted she did not keep alcohol in the house.
She later told police Chiclana had prepared the bottle, according to court documents, and that he was not happy about the attention she had been giving the child.
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She went on to say the baby was teething and Chiclana had joked about giving Jacob alcohol to help him sleep.
The autopsy report found alcohol in the baby's blood, liver, gastric contents and urine and said Jacob likely died because he was asthmatic and had been placed face-down in the crib. According to the report, Jacob's breathing was likely affected because the alcohol depressed his nervous system.
Chiclana was originally charged with with second-degree manslaughter and injuring and impairing the morals of children. He was convicted of risk of injury to a child and sentenced to five years in prison, suspended after one year, and five years of probation.
