Lang
9/18/21
A Coralville man faces charges that he dropped his own baby to fight the child’s mother.
According to arrest records, Iowa City Police responded to a domestic disturbance on Shady Glen Court just before 9:15 Friday night. Arriving officers say they noticed 25-year-old Donte Mitchell of the Iowa Lodge on the Coralville Strip pushing a woman just inside the doorway. He had a small cut on his thumb, and the screen door was broken with various items scattered on the floor.
Mitchell allegedly told police that he and the mother of his child had recently broken up, and he didn’t want his nine-month-old baby around some of the friends she had invited to the residence. Police say Mitchell went to the residence to remove the child when he and the mother got into a verbal altercation that became physical. Mitchell allegedly started punching her with one hand while holding the baby in the other. When the woman began blocking the punches, police say Mitchell dropped the baby and began using both fists to continue the assault.
Mitchell told police he dropped the baby because he needed both hands to defend himself against the woman, who he claimed came at him with a knife. He said the cut on his thumb was from that attack.
The baby was transported to a local hospital by ambulance after investigators say it suffered a cut to its lip and was actively bleeding from its lip and mouth.
Mitchell is charged with Child Endangerment Causing Serious Injury and Domestic Abuse Assault. If convicted on both charges, he faces a maximum of over ten years in prison.