Man sentenced to 50 years for putting anti-freeze in his 18-day old daughter's breastmilk to avoid paying child support

SOUTH FULTON, GA - Authorities have charged a man who told police that he put antifreeze in his newborn child's milk because he did not want to pay child support to the baby's mother. 

According to WSBTV, once the suspect, identified as Curtis Jack, was indicted and facing several charges including attempted murder, he redacted his confession. Detectives and the District Attorney's Office worked extremely hard to ensure that the case against Jack was solid and they did everything they could to prove that he was guilty of such a heinous act. 

Sergeant Pserda Dickerson said, "It's beyond getting a confession we still have to prove someone committed the crime. You still have to prove that the person is guilty." Detectives said they were confused by Jack's motive because he had a good paying job. According to the Blaze, Jack inpregnanted his coworker in 2022. The mother of the baby said that for the entire pregnancy, he tried to get her to have an abortion. 

After the child was born, the mother asked Jack for help because she was forced to stay in the hospital over birth complications. He was asked to pick up two bottles of breast milk from the mother and deliver it to the child's grandmother who was caring for the child. Soon after drinking the milk, the baby became critically ill. 

When detectives interviewed Jack about the milk, he admitted to putting antifreeze in it in order to avoid having to pay for child support. Sergeant Dickerson said, "It hit home because it was an 18-day-old baby." The mother told WSBTV that the little girl is going to be OK. Police said that Jack was reportedly engaged to another woman at the time of the incident and that that could possibly be another motivation for his horrific actions.

Jack has been charged with criminal attempt to commit murder and first-degree cruelty to children. Dickerson said in a statement, "With our job we have to really tap into two different places. We have to do our job, we also have to be empathetic with the parent. So it kind of hit home, based off of us trying to figure out who done it, and what the motives were."

According to Fox 5, during the trial, the State presented testimonies from the child's mother, grandmother, law enforcement officers, and medical experts, including a demonstration of how easy it was to poison the breastmilk. A jury found Jack guilty of all counts by a unanimous verdict. A judge sentenced him to 50 years in prison with 40 years to be served in person.