Man charged with murder in infant son's death

A tragic story continued unfolding this week in the case of Dennis Ray Driver Jr., the 8-month-old Houston boy who died late last year while asleep on his father's chest: The father, Dennis Driver, has been charged with murder in connection with the infant's death — and police say the boy died from taking cocaine. It happened Dec. 28, when Driver says he fell asleep with Dennis Jr. asleep on his chest; when Driver woke up, he said the boy wasn't breathing. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital, but he died the next day.

Tests by the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office found that there was cocaine in the baby's blood and stomach. Though prosecutors said they don't think Driver gave the drug to the child, they believe he allowed his son access to it. "We really don't know how the child ingested the cocaine. We don't believe that it was intentionally done. But, of course, the father does have a history of drug use. So, somehow with handling the baby and taking care of the baby, the baby was able to ingest this," Estella Olguin with Child Protective Services told KPRC. Harris County prosecutor Murray Newman said Driver was charged with murder because his son died while he was committing another felony — possession of cocaine.

Driver was being held in the Harris County Jail on a $100,000 bond after his arrest Wednesday. He has a criminal record that dates back to 1998 and includes a two-year prison sentence in 2004 on a narcotics conviction and a three-month sentence last summer for drug possession. Another child living in Driver's apartment at the time of the death has been placed with a mother's aunt, but Olguin said that may not be permanent: "She's going to have to prove that her environment's going to be safe, that she's not going to expose her child to either people who are involved in dangerous activities and that she, herself, can protect that child in the future," she said.