Illinois Dad Found Not Guilty of Murdering His 3-Month-Old Son

A 22-year-old from Illinois who last year was accused of murdering his infant son was found not guilty on Thursday in a Perry County court after a three-day trial.

The murder charges against Logan Hutchings and Sophia Kelly made national news (and the RFT, too) when they were filed by prosecutors last April. The couple's three-month-old infant had died in a St. Louis hospital in June 2022, two days after being brought there with a skull fracture and multiple rib fractures.

The baby's cause of death was found to be blunt force trauma to the head, and the St. Louis City Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide.

In the wake of their infant's death, the couple made posts on social media implying someone else was to blame, though the posts did not specify who.

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Logan Hutchings Facebook

Logan Hutchings posted this photo to Facebook the day after baby Ocean was admitted to a hospital in St. Louis. Ocean died a day later.

According to the County Journal's coverage of the trial, Hutchings' father-in-law, Jeramy Kelly, testified at the trial that at the hospital in St. Louis, Hutchings told him, "They're going to get me for breaking his ribs." But when asked to clarify what this meant, Jeramy said that Hutchings clarified that he meant injuries related to his performing CPR on the infant after the infant was already in distress.

Jeramy also testified that he could not be totally confident that his daughter, the child’s mother, was innocent of murder, the County Journal reported. 

After the three-day bench trial, Perry County Judge Gene Gross ruled that prosecutors had not met their burden of proof, acquitting Hutchings of all charges.

"This is a massive relief for Mr. Hutchings and his family," Hutchings' attorney Matthew Benson said in a statement to the RFT. "Logan maintained his innocence from the first time he came into my office. I’m glad we were able to assist him in obtaining the result he deserved."

Both Hutchings and Sophia Kelly are from Pinckneyville, an Illinois town of about 5,000 people about an hour southeast of St. Louis.

Reports suggest that prosecutors intend to dismiss the charges against Sophia Kelly, though Illinois court records still show her due in court on May 1.