Man put heroin in baby's bottle to calm him down, killing him

A Philadelphia man charged with putting heroin and methadone in his infant son's bottle to quiet him, which killed him, was convicted Tuesday of third-degree murder, reported The Huffington Post.

Orlando Rosado, 46, did not testify at the one-day trial, but the defense said Rosado accidentally put the drugs in the baby's bottle during a heroin relapse.

His son, Christopher, died two days shy of his first birthday in May 2012.

Common Pleas Judge Barbara McDermott said she based her verdict in the nonjury trial partly on Rosado's conduct afterward, when he gave changing statements to the police, including an attempt to blame the death on his 5-year-old daughter.

"I was appalled when I heard that," McDermott said. Yet McDermott says she knows Rosado regrets his actions.

He told the police his son was "his heart and soul." Medical records show Christopher was healthy, if small for his age, and there was no evidence of prior abuse or neglect.

Photographs show the house was neatly kept, and the boy's mother said Rosado handled overnight feedings and boiled water to make the formula. And a friend came every day at 7 a.m. to take him to a methadone clinic for treatment.

"He was pretty good with the baby," said the friend, Giovanni Nieves. But Nieves knew that Rosado was still using, buying both heroin and methadone on the street. He was also being treated for bipolar disorder.