BEMIDJI -- A Bemidji man and woman were charged Friday in relation to the high-force head trauma of a 7-month-old boy.
Timothy Kenneth Lundberg, 29, was charged with felony first-degree assault causing great bodily harm. Brenda Kala Hertel, 22, was charged with felony neglect or endangerment of a child. Their initial appearance in Beltrami County District Court is scheduled for Tuesday. Meanwhile, they are being held in the Beltrami County Jail.
According to the criminal complaint, Lundberg and Hertel are charged with injuring the baby while it was in their care.
The baby's mother, Kristin Shepard, had hired Hertel and Lundberg to care for him but while the mother was out, the child was injured.
Authorities said` Hertel was aware of the baby's condition for about an hour before calling 911.
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The complaint states that Hertel and Lundberg didn't provide any "reasonable" explanation for the baby's injuries. Lundberg said if anything happened, it was an accident, and he didn't want to go to jail, according to court documents. Hertel has told a number of people she knows what happened to the baby, but she refuses to tell them what happened.
The baby, Ayven Jayce Shepard, was was diagnosed as having massive left-side head trauma. He was air-lifted to Minneapolis Children's Hospital where he remains. According to www.CaringBridge.org/visit/
Ayvenshepard, he remains in a coma and on a feeding tube but is breathing without a ventilator.
The investigator in the case, Brian Ball, was informed by the Minnesota Children's resource Center "if the baby survived, he would be in a vegetative state and would not interact with his environment."
