CONCORD, NH – Ten years ago, Cameron MacDonald died from a severe brain injury caused by his father in 2006. On Wednesday his father, Brian MacDonald of Concord, was charged with killing him.
MacDonald, 44, of 100 South Fruit St., was sentenced in 2010 to 15 to 40 years in prison on a first-degree assault charge. He was paroled on June 29, 2018.
Cameron was 34-days old when MacDonald shook him on Feb. 2, 2006, causing a severe brain injury. He died on Jan. 8, 2010, nearly four years later.
On Wednesday, MacDonald was arrested and charged with second-degree murder for recklessly, “under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life,” causing the death of Cameron by shaking or otherwise inflicting force upon the infant causing him to suffer a fatal brain injury and killing him.
Staff in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did a comprehensive review of several years of medical records and determined the infant’s death was a homicide and that he died as a result of injuries he sustained from the physical assault in 2006, according to New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald and Manchester Police Chief Carlo Capano.
The baby was injured when MacDonald lived together with the mother, Katrina Hayford, at 222 Lake Ave., Apt 1 B, in Manchester.
According to news reports at the time, Hayford left the baby and her other 1-year-old son with MacDonald while she went to visit a friend.
She returned within 90 minutes to find the baby having difficulty breathing and with a bruise on his torso. The baby was taken to the Elliot Hospital and later transferred to Boston’s Children Hospital. A physician told police the baby had a life-threatening brain injury as well as broken ribs, a liver laceration and a possible spinal injury. The infant also suffered a hypoxic injury (lack of oxygen to the brain.)
MacDonald told police that he was “angry and frustrated” and took it out on the baby. He said he dropped Cameron by mistake and the baby landed on his head and shoulder. Police said MacDonald then bent over, roughly grabbed the infant around the ribs with both hands and shook him twice. He said his son’s head flopped around when he shook him and the baby appeared as if he was dead, according to detectives.
On Thursday, MacDonald was arraigned on the second-degree murder charge in 9th Circuit – District Division – Manchester. No plea can be entered no bail can be set on a felony charge in circuit court.
MacDonald, therefore, is being held without bail until a hearing at the Superior Court level. In the meantime, a probable cause hearing by video was set for July 28 at 10:30 a.m. in circuit court.
