Dad charged after autopsy finds alcohol in baby's body

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- A 22-year-old father has been charged with manslaughter in Connecticut after an autopsy showed there was a high level of alcohol in the system of his 5-month-old son.

Jorge Chiclana wasn't too thrilled to see cameras in the courtroom at his arraignment.

Chiclana is accused of killing his son by putting alcohol into the infant's formula.

5-month-old Jacob Isaiah Chiclana died a year ago almost to the day.

At first, authorities believed asthma triggered by paint fumes were to blame.

The family lived in a housing complex in Norwalk.

One night Chiclana was up late spray painting a model car he had found when at 4 a.m. he prepared a bottle and brought it to his then-wife when Jacob woke up for a feeding.

"I do know he made the bottle, and because it looked normal I fed it to my son," said Odalis Galarza, the child's mother.

Toxicology results found Jacob's blood alcohol level at .04.

Tests on the liquid in the baby's bottle showed .25% alcohol by volume, the equivalent of a 50-proof cocktail.

But why? In her statement to police, Galarza said her husband was unhappy with all the attention the baby was getting and that Jorge joked about giving the baby alcohol to help with teething and sleeping and Garlarza thinks that maybe he "kicked it up a notch."

Defense lawyers claim Chiclana has mental health and substance abuse issues.

"Something like disappearing, he was good at that, maybe sometimes a little bit physical, or you know just outbursts, yelling out, things like that, but something such as alcohol in a baby bottle, never would have thought that," Galarza said.

Chiclana was arrested Monday after authorities say he was found hiding in a motel in Stratford. He has been charged with manslaughter.