Jonathan Waters

A Butler County man was arrested Thursday on murder charges stemming from the Oct. 28 death of his infant son.

A Warren County grand jury indicted Jonathan Waters, 27, of Roundhill, Wednesday on a charge of murder and second-degree criminal abuse in the child’s death. 

The grand jury indictment against Waters lists the infant’s age as 3 months old. The infant’s name is redacted from court records. An obituary for a Waters infant that ran in the Daily News listed Jonathan Waters as the infant’s father.

“The investigation showed multiple internal and external injuries throughout the child’s body,” Warren County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Stephen Harmon said. He declined to elaborate further.

The infant, who was living with his parents at 5297 Louisville Road, Apt. 206 in October, was initially taken to The Medical Center on Oct. 26, was unresponsive upon arrival and was flown to Monroe Carrell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, where he died Oct. 28.

“On the Waters case, as in all child fatalities, the Warren County Child Fatality team met shortly after the event and reviewed all the circumstances surrounding the infant’s death,” Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron said. “This group is essential in these type of cases to evaluate all aspects that contributed to the death.”

At 2 p.m. Thursday, Warren County sheriff’s deputies found Waters hiding in a bedroom closet inside his mother’s Butler County home. He was served with a Warren County Circuit Court indictment warrant and taken to the Warren County Regional Jail, where is he being held under a $250,000 cash bond.

Deputies were assisted by Butler County Sheriff’s deputies, who went to 3802 Reedyville Road in Morgantown looking for Waters where he was found in a closet. Waters was staying at that address with his mother, Harmon said.

“The investigation has been ongoing since the child’s death,” Cohron said. “We unfortunately had to wait for the completion of the infant’s autopsy from the Tennessee Medical Examiner.”

If convicted as charged, Waters could receive a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 20 years, Cohron said.

Waters was arraigned this morning in Warren Circuit Court. A pretrial conference is set for 9 a.m. Sept. 2.

— Follow news editor Deborah Highland on Twitter at twitter.com/bgdnnewseditor or visit bgdailynews.com.