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Father is found guilty of abuse

A Hudson man faces prison time after a 2003 incident involving his then-infant son.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published January 14, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - It took attorneys three days to lay out the child abuse case against Aaron J. Hunsberger.

Jurors needed about an hour to decide the Hudson man's fate.

They found the stay-at-home dad guilty on two counts of aggravated child abuse, essentially guaranteeing he will spend more time in prison than the five-year sentence previously offered by prosecutors.

Hunsberger, 33, rejected a plea deal. Now, he faces between 12 and 60 years in prison.

Assistant State Attorney Eva Vergos said Hunsberger violently shook his son on multiple occasions. The worst, she said, occurred Aug. 2, 2003, when the 51/2-month-old baby was airlifted to a St. Petersburg hospital with injuries including a fractured skull, old and new bruises, retinal hemorrhages and healing fractures to his left collarbone and right arm.

His wife at her job as a bank teller, Hunsberger was the child's sole caregiver at the time.

"It was his responsibility to hold and protect (his son's) head," Vergos said. "Instead ... he shook it so hard that (the baby's brain) was hitting up against his skull."

But defense attorney Keith Hammond noted it was Hunsberger who called 911 when he found his son blue and not breathing, and Hunsberger who performed CPR to try to save him.

Wendy Hunsberger, who testified on behalf of her husband, said after the verdict that there was no concrete evidence her son's skull had been fractured. She and her husband suggested the injuries might have been caused by an array of situations, from jostling the infant in a bouncy seat to his trouble with holding up his large head.

The boy, almost 3, is in good health, she said. He lives with his mother, sisters and paternal grandparents. Though the Hunsbergers remain married, Aaron Hunsberger has not been allowed contact with his son since his August 2003 arrest.

Jurors and authorities "think they were protecting these children," she said tearfully. "I think all they did was bring them more harm now."

"They cry for their father," Sue Hunsberger, Aaron's mother, said.

Colleen Jenkins covers courts in west Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6236 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505.

[Last modified January 14, 2006, 01:39:15]