St. Cloud father charged with manslaughter after going to bed drunk with baby who later suffocated

A St. Cloud man has been charged with unintentionally causing the death of his 7-month-old son in 2021.

Joshua Alan Cox, 36, was charged with two counts of manslaughter.

St. Cloud police were called to a medical emergency involving an infant around 3:26 a.m. on Sept. 22, 2021, on the 1700 block of Roosevelt Road.

The infant’s mother said her 7-month-old son wasn’t breathing, was cold to the touch and that his face looked “smashed” and “wrong.” Despite life-saving measures by first responders, the boy was pronounced deceased at the scene, according to a criminal complaint.

Investigators learned that Cox, the infant’s father, had been taking care of the infant. Court documents state that Cox told police he went to bed with the infant and an older sibling around 11:30 p.m.

Cox added that his wife woke him up when she got home from work and this was the first time he realized the infant wasn’t breathing and was cold to the touch. He said he put the infant on his back before getting in bed with him.

The baby’s mother told police that when she got home, she saw the baby lying on his stomach with Cox’s head on the baby’s back.

A blood sample taken from Cox at 8:20 a.m. showed a blood-alcohol content of .128, according to court documents. Cox admitted to drinking three to four shots of Fireball whiskey but claimed they were spaced out while his wife was at work and denied drinking past 10:30 p.m.

Investigators determined that Cox was “significantly intoxicated” when he got into bed with the infant. Cox said he previously had a drinking problem but believed he limited it to several drinks per night.

Officers at the scene saw Cox seemingly try to hide an empty bottle of Fireball.

While executing a search warrant, officers found multiple bottles of alcohol. The home was also “significantly cluttered and nearly unlivable” due to various other health hazards, court documents state.

The infant’s cause of death was ruled to be positional asphyxia due to unsafe sleeping conditions.

Court documents also note that less than a month before his death, the infant had fallen from the bed and hit his head on a broken piggy bank on the floor. The infant needed to be taken to the emergency room.

“Although co-sleeping on its own is deemed medically unsafe, the defendant’s intoxication level and the state of the residence created an additionally unsafe sleeping environment,” the complaint states.