At a hearing in Lawrence District Court, Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall said 23-year-old Alexis Medina pushed his infant son’s face down into a pillow on Dec. 28 until the child stopped moving.

Medina told investigators he also had shaken the baby for about 30 seconds the night before, MacDougall said.

The defendant hung his head quietly as the prosecutor told the court Medina was the sole caregiver of his infant son on Dec. 28, when the defendant’s mother arrived at his apartment and found the child was not breathing.

“As soon as she touched him, she realized something was terribly wrong,” MacDougall said.

By the time the child was rushed to New England Medical Center, doctors found he had “substantial brain swelling,” as well as six healing rib fractures, she said.

In the months before the baby’s death, the defendant’s own family had taken care of the child for a while because they had “increasing concerns” that Medina was “short-tempered,” MacDougall said.

He admitted “yanking” the baby’s arm at one point until it “snapped,” she said.

Because he had spent time in jail for fracturing the skull of his 6-month-old daughter by another woman, Medina was also angry that he was behind in child support payments, MacDougall said.

But his attorney said Medina was being falsely accused of child abuse.

Raymond Buso said the child was waking up when his client merely “pressed the baby’s bottom” to settle him back down.

Outside court, Buso said the accusation that the child was suffocated and revived an hour or so later was “just impossible.”

The infant’s mother “repeatedly” told police that she had only see Medina “roughhousing” with the baby, he said, but police threatened to charge her, instead. They also interviewed Medina while he was still on Ativan, which he had been given at the hospital, Buso said.

“The grief and loss he has – he’s not trying to protect himself and never was,” he said. “The case is already over. The press has decided it.”

The Herald reported today probation officers regularly visited Medina at home, where officials did not see any evidence of mistreatment.

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