By Scott North
Herald Writer
A 2-year-old Everett boy’s final meal played a role in the arrest Thursday of a neighbor who is now under investigation for second-degree murder in the child’s death April 3.
Saksit Shane, 35, was in Everett District Court Friday, where he was ordered jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail. No charges have been filed.
Shane is suspected in the death of Jett Jared Small, a neighbor boy who died of a head injury allegedly received while under the man’s care.
Shane also is under investigation for second-degree assault of a child in a case involving his 12-year-old daughter. The man earlier this week allegedly choked the girl and hit her in the face, causing her nose to bleed, according to Everett police reports that were filed with the court to establish probable cause for the man’s arrest.
The alleged assault came after the girl got in trouble at school, Everett police spokesman Boyd Bryant said.
Shane was arrested Thursday evening in Mount Vernon, where he had been living while state child protective workers investigated the living situation in his home. He’s been under investigation in the neighbor boy’s death for weeks.
Shane initially told police that the boy passed out and struck his head on a coffee table after eating a meal.
The injuries are inconsistent with the man’s story, prosecutors said.
"There was a massive head injury," Snohomish County deputy prosecutor John Adcock said in court Friday, arguing in support of a high bail.
Experts told police that the damage to the boy’s brain was the equivalent of what one would see in a high-speed accident or a fall from a two-story building, Adcock added.
Doctors also said undigested food in the boy’s stomach was consistent with the boy having received his brain injury at about 2 p.m., about an hour before Shane summoned paramedics.
It is unlikely that the boy would have eaten, or even been conscious, after receiving such an injury, according to court papers. Shane was the only person with the child during the time he was injured, police said.
When confronted by detectives Thursday regarding their suspicions about the April 3 death, Shane initially denied any knowledge of how the boy had been hurt. Later, he laid the blame on his own 2-year-old son, claiming the boy had clobbered the neighbor’s child with a metal toy car, documents show.
Shane eventually admitted that he was lying, according to court papers.
"Saksit Shane related that while throwing (Jet) Jared Small into the air above his head during play, he had missed catching Jared, and Jared fell to the ground landing on the back of his head," detective Matt Myers said in a police statement filed in court.
The man told detectives that he delayed calling 911 because he was scared, and took the time to come up with a story about what had occurred.
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431
or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
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