Father Indicted in Baby’s Beating Death

June 11, 2021 – A Frayser man who was suspected of injuring his baby son in 2019 was indicted Thursday in a beating a year later that resulted in the child’s death, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A grand jury indicted 36-year-old Antonio First on charges of first-degree murder in the perpetration of aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect. He is being held on $150,000 bond.

Investigators said that in April of 2019 the boy, Brayton Brooks, then 14 months old, was brought to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in critical condition with a bruised forehead sustained while in his father’s care.

First was not charged, but was not to have custody by an order of the court.

On June 24, 2020, he called 911 from a residence in the 3600 block of North Trezevant and said the boy was not breathing. Brayton, then 28 months old, was taken to the hospital where he died from multiple injuries that included fractures on both sides of the skull, ligature marks around his neck, and major bruising on his entire body. His stomach was filled with blood.

The case is being handled by Felony Asst. Paige Munn and Chief Prosecutor Eric Christensen of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Unit (SVU) which prosecutes cases involving rape, child sexual abuse, severe physical abuse of child victims, elder abuse, and abuse of vulnerable adults.

The SVU was created in 2010 as an expansion of the multi-agency Child Protection Investigative Team (CPIT).