Blythe parents arrested after baby suffers skull fractures & brain bleed

David Alan James, 35, and Emma Grace Pittman, 19, are charged with child cruelty and aggravated battery.

Date: October 14, 2023

A Blythe couple has been arrested for life-threatening injuries that left their 6-week-old baby in critical condition at the hospital with a skull fracture and brain bleeding.

David Alan James, 35, and Emma Grace Pittman, 19, of the 3100 block of Goolsby Road, Blythe, were both charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children in the first degree in the injuries to their infant son.

Authorities were called out to the couple’s home on Wednesday, where paramedics found the victim not breathing and several obvious injuries. The couple is accused of committing severe injuries to the baby at their home, causing the child to become unresponsive and end up at the Children’s Hospital of Georgia.

An arrest warrant explains the horrifying injuries: “The victim sustained bilateral skull fractures, active bleeding inside and outside of the brain, blown right pupil, anal fissure and bruising to his head, right chest, penis, buttocks, right flank, both arms and knees.”

James and Pittman were arrested Wednesday and remained held without bond at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center.

James is the same man who pleaded guilty to cocaine and meth possession in 2019, with Judge Amanda Heath giving him probation. A domestic violence charge from 2019 lingered in the courts for four years before Judge Kellie McIntyre accepted a plea three months ago to disorderly conduct and gave him probation. James also has four traffic-related charges, including two for driving on a suspended license.

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The Author

Greg Rickabaugh is an award-winning crime reporter in the Augusta-Aiken area with experience writing for The Augusta Chronicle and serving as publisher of The Jail Report. He also owns AugustaCrime.com. Rickabaugh is a 1994 graduate of the University of South Carolina and has appeared on several crime documentaries on the Investigation Discovery channel. He is married with two daughters.

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