Melrose man who threw infant son onto sidewalk sentenced to five years in prison

By Zachary T. Sampson, Globe Correspondent

A year to the day after he threw his 7-week-old son onto a cement sidewalk, a Melrose man was sentenced today to five years in state prison, prosecutors said.

Carlos Edwards, 35, tossed his infant child to the ground after an argument with the child’s mother in Malden, causing the baby to suffer traumatic head injuries, according to the office of Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. Edwards fled the scene but later turned himself into Malden police. Prosecutors said the young boy was hospitalized for six days at Massachusetts General Hospital.

A Middlesex Superior Court jury found Edwards guilty Wednesday of charges of assault and battery on a child causing bodily injury, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a child under 14, and reckless endangerment of a child, Leone’s office said in a statement. Edwards was also sentenced to three years probation, with the conditions that he complete a batterer’s program and comply with orders of juvenile and probate courts.

“We are pleased to see the defendant held accountable for his reckless actions,” Leone said in a statement. “Children are our most vulnerable victims and we will continue to prosecute any offender who commits crimes against children, especially where that offender is supposed to care and protect the victim.”