Trial next week for Bartlesville suspect in 3-year-old's death

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - The murder trial will begin Tuesday for a Bartlesville man accused in the death of a 3-year-old boy more than year ago.

23-year-old Joshua Benton, charged with first degree murder involving the death of a child, is now being held without bail at the Washington County jail where he has been held since late last year.

Between the time of his arrest nearly a year prior and his transfer in December, he had been held at an out-of-county jail due to his former employment with the Washington County Sheriff's Office as a jail detention officer.

The events that led to Benton's arrest began on Dec. 7, 2010, when the dispatch office received a call from the 400 block of N.W. Aledo in the Oak Park community reporting a child not breathing. Medical personnel arriving to the scene found 3-year-old Christian Norris unresponsive and transported him to Jane Phillips Medical Center where he later was pronounced dead.

Police arrested Benton the following day on a complaint of first degree murder — the charge based on results from the police investigation and a preliminary medical examiner's report which implicated him in the toddler's death.

According to the medical examiner's report, the child died from complications due to blunt force trauma to the lower back.

During a bond hearing, a police investigator told court the autopsy showed the child had a “severely broken lower back” and that the boy's right kidney had failed to function.

The investigator said during initial interviews with Benton that Benton reportedly said the boy had fallen off a couch or bed, but said later Benton said he may have injured the boy while trying to hold the boy still while drying him off following a bath.

Benton reportedly then told the investigator he had been holding the boy up next to his chest, causing him to facing him, using one arm to support the child's lower back, when the boy began “bucking.” He said he used his other hand to push the boy's chest away from him, while the other arm still held on the boy.

Asked during the interview if he had used force in doing so, Benton “indicated he must have,” the investigator told the court.