A Marine accused of shaking a baby so hard that she went into a coma heard the evidence against him yesterday in a Joshua Tree courtroom, and the judge held him over to face trial. The prosecution says that John Jeter, 27, was home in the 6100 block of Begonia Place in Joshua Tree on November 19, 2014, with his girlfriend’s 5 ½-month old baby with instructions to change her and feed her while her mother was out doing errands. When the infant started crying, detectives said he picked her up and shook her five to six times, which caused her head to flop back and forth. Lead detective Jacob Gault said that Jeter told him that he heard the baby gasp, her eyes went wide open and stared blankly, and white foam began to come out of her mouth. A forensic pediatrician at Loma Linda Medical Center said her opinion was that the injury was not accidental, and was due to acceleration and deceleration of the brain, which caused bleeding and swelling of the brain. John Jeter will be formally arraigned September 7 on the charge of child abuse causing great bodily injury to a child under 8, and for bringing a weapon into jail. He is being held at West Valley Detention Center with his bail set at $550,000.
