SENIOR Staff Writer

DURANT - One charge was dropped during a preliminary hearing for a Cartwright man accused of abusing a baby.

Ethan Star Ewton, 22, was charged in April with child sexual abuse and child abuse by injury after a 5-month-old girl was flown to a Dallas, Texas, hospital to be treated for a skull fracture and rectal lacerations, according to a probable-cause affidavit by District Attorney Investigator Sam Hernandez.

During a preliminary hearing this week, District Judge Mark Campbell ruled there was insufficient evidence that the baby had been sexually abused, and ordered that charge dismissed.

Campbell ruled that there is sufficient evidence to hold Ewton on the child-abuse charge, and a formal arraignment was set Nov. 21.

Ewton remains in jail on that charge.

According to the affidavit, Ewton claimed he was bathing the baby in the kitchen sink, and that he turned around after he was distracted. When he turned back around, the baby was underneath the water.

Ewton told authorities he grabbed her, and that she slipped from his hands and hit her head against the sink, the affidavit states. He said she coughed up water, and appeared to be okay, but he performed CPR about two hours later when she was having trouble breathing.

A doctor told Hernandez that the injuries, which included two rectal tears, multiple bruises and a skull fracture, were “highly suspicious of non-accidental nature,” the affidavit states.

According to court records, Ewton has a prior conviction for child abuse for harming an 8-month-old baby boy. He pleaded no contest in October 2005 to injury of a minor child, and was given a five-year prison sentence, but most sentence was suspended, and Ewton only served county jail time.

In July, Ewton was charged with attempted escape from jail.