Christopher Eugene RussellA father charged in Marion County, Tenn., in the 2012 death of his 3-month-old son is now free on a $100,000 bond as he awaits a trial date next summer.
Christopher Russell, 26, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in Colin Russell's June 17, 2012, death. Russell was arrested in August 2014, more than two years after the child died.
Russell was released on a $100,000 bond after a Sept. 22, 2015, court hearing in Marion County Circuit Court, according to officials. A trial was set for Aug. 15, 2016.
Assistant District Attorney Steve Strain said Tuesday that District Attorney Mike Taylor and Russell's defense attorney, William Bullock, reached an agreement on the bond amount during the September hearing and that Russell is allowed to return to his home in Georgia to work as a truck driver.
"From the court's standpoint, he's not convicted," Strain said of Russell's release. "He can pursue his profession as long as he appears for his dates in court."
Relatives on mother Leah Collins' side of the family declined comment.
Attempts on Tuesday to reach Russell's attorney, Bullock, were not successful.
Russell was named a "person of interest" early in the investigation that began June 17, 2012. The Sequatchie, Tenn., infant boy stopped breathing and was taken to Grandview Medical Center in Jasper, Tenn., then transferred to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville.
A 12-page autopsy report by Dr. Bridget B. Eutenier, the associate medical examiner who performed the autopsy in Nashville on June 24, 2012, lists the cause of death as homicide. The report notes contusions on the child's head, injuries that included blood clotting in several areas of his brain and "extensive" hemorrhaging in the optic nerves of both eyes.
Colin also had at least 15 fractures of his ribs and a fractured right clavicle, along with a ligament injury on his spine that appeared to have been healing, the report states.
Prosecutors and investigators went to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville early in the investigation to interview the doctor who treated Colin before the family agreed to discontinue life support on June 23, 2012, authorities said.
"The injuries seen in this case involving multiple areas of the body in varying stages of healing are consistent with repeated non-accidental trauma and a diagnosis of battered child syndrome," Eutenier states in the report's summary.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.
News report from the arrest: