A Butler Township father has been charged in connection with the death of his 2-month-old son after police found the infant’s bruised and lifeless body on a couch Saturday.

Vincent Miceli, 32, was charged Monday with homicide, aggravated assault of a young child and endangering the welfare of children.

An autopsy showed the baby died from blunt force trauma. Police said Miceli told authorities he was unaware of how his son got hurt.

Township police arrived around 3 p.m. Saturday at a home on Spooner Drive after the baby’s mother, Courtney Smith, called 911 to report her son was not breathing, according to a criminal complaint.

The complaint did not identify the baby, and the Butler County Coroner’s Office refused to provide his name.

Smith learned of her son’s grave condition through a phone call from Miceli, the complaint said. Authorities said Smith did not call police.

Miceli had dropped off Smith for work that morning, and he was the only one home with the baby after that, the complaint states. Smith later told police her son appeared normal before she left.

Authorities knocked at the door several times before Miceli answered, wearing a towel and telling officers he chose to shower before letting them in. The baby, too, appeared recently bathed, having wet hair and a “clean” appearance, according to a paramedic cited in the complaint.

The baby had no pulse and lay naked on a couch with bruises on his head and torso, police said.

The infant was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead just before 4 p.m, according to the complaint.

Pennsylvania State Police took over the investigation at that point, interviewing both Miceli and Smith.

Miceli’s version of events went like this, according to police: Around 11 a.m., he took Smith to work. He came back just before 11:30 a.m., fed the baby formula and then napped till 1:30 p.m or so.

Next, Miceli told officers he played with the baby, blowing raspberries on his stomach and giving him “tummy time.”

Miceli claimed to have noticed a small bruise forming on his son’s head around 2:30 p.m, according to police. He went to get a baby bottle in the kitchen, and when he returned the bruise had grown and his son was shaking.

“Dude, he was dead,” Miceli told police, according to the complaint.

Miceli is being held without bail in Butler County’s jail ahead of a Nov. 20 preliminary hearing.

He did not have an attorney listed in court documents.

Coroner William Young III refused to provide the baby’s name to TribLive. His office gave the cause and manner — blunt force trauma and homicide — but claimed it could not share the name of someone under 18.

Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, however, said the baby’s name as well as his cause and manner of death should be public information.

The coroner’s denial on the grounds of age is “not supported by law,” Melewsky said Wednesday, citing multiple court decisions.

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