From WHIO: Shaken baby clinging to life

TROTWOOD -- A 13-month-old girl is clinging to life as the case against the man accused of putting her in a hospital winds its way through the court system.

Tuesday night, the child’s grandmother, Tonya Fox, spoke with WHIO-TV about how her grandchild is doing at Dayton Children’s Medical Center and how the family is coping with what has happened to her daughter’s baby.

“We’ve been through the anger,” Fox said. “We’ve cried. There’s no explanation as to why somebody could do this to a child, how they could put their hands on a child like this.”

According Fox, doctors have told her that Maleigha Waymire has bleeding in her eyes and to her brain, bruising to her neck and back, and swelling on the brain.

Fox said doctors have told her that they will know in two months, after the swelling has subsided, whether the child has brain damage.

The child was admitted to the hospital on Christmas Day, suffering from life-threatening injuries, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office, which the hospital contacted that day to report a possible child abuse incident.

On Dec. 29, sheriff’s investigators -- based on a series of interviews -- arrested Leo Hayes Wright, 27, of East Center Street in Milford Center, on a charge of felony child endangerment, according to the office of Sheriff Malcum J. “Jamie” Patton.

Wright, according to the sheriff’s office, has admitted to shaking the child.

According to Fox, Wright told investigators that the child was crying and that he was trying to get her to stop.

Wright was also charged with one count of domestic violence after he was accused of assaulting the child’s mother on or about Dec. 17.

On Dec. 29, Wright had his bond in Marysville Municipal Court set at $250,000 cash. He remains in the Tri-County Jail, in Mechanicsburg.

The case will be presented to a Union County grand jury on Jan. 9 for possible additional charges, according to the court.

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