LUBBOCK, Texas — Defense attorneys on Tuesday presented evidence that Charles Dillon Flournoy accidentally dropped a one-year-old boy who later died. The evidence was part of the ongoing trial of Madison Rodriguez, 23, who was initially charged with capital murder for the death of her son Mason, age 1.
The trial is for a lesser charge of aggravated assault. Last week, the jury heard evidence that Rodriguez admitted to throwing Mason down on the floor because she was angry.
Emergency crews were called in June 2015 to the 1800 block of East 25th Street for a child not breathing. Mason later died.
Flournoy was described as Mason’s stepdad. A recording of Flournoy’s interview with police was played for the jury. Flournoy told police that he dropped the baby when getting out of the shower and a few days later the baby fell out of the sink during a bath.
“All I can say is I did drop him,” Flournoy told the police in the recorded interview. “I did not lose my temper. I did not do it on purpose. I have never once taken my anger out on that baby. I might be a lot of things, but I’m not evil.”
Flournoy was pressed by police detectives. His answers did not match the seriousness of the injuries, they told Flournoy. At first, he stuck to his story of two accidental drops.
But when pressed he said of Rodriguez, “There was one time when she covered him up and stepped on his head, and there was another time when she threw him down hard.”
At trial, there was evidence that police believe both things happened – Flournoy accidentally dropped the baby, and Rodriguez intentionally threw him down.
Flournoy was charged at the time with injury to a child and as of Tuesday those charges were still pending against him. He has been free on bond for four years.
Testimony continued Tuesday in the Rodriguez trial.
