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Police: Sequoyah County man arrested for murder following infant's death

Dwight Green was arrested and booked into the Sequoyah County Jail on first-degree murder, the death of a child by injuring, torturing, and maiming charges.

SEQUOYAH COUNTY, Okla. — According to court documents, on May 17, 2021, a 911 call came into the Sequoyah County Sheriff's dispatch center involving a 2-month-old female.

EMS and deputies arrived at the residence on South 4613 Road in Sallisaw to find the child's father, Dwight Green performing CPR on the child.

The documents say EMS transported the child by ambulance to Northeastern Health System Sequoyah Hospital in Sallisaw.

Once at the hospital, court records state that the child had a cranial bleed and a collapsed lung. She was transported by helicopter to Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Investigators started questioning the father, Dwight Green, and the child's mother. Court documents show both told investigators they thought the injuries were caused by their two-year-old daughter hitting the infant on the head and face several times with a wooden-handled toy mop 3 to 4 days earlier.

The documents say that the child's mother told investigators she fed the infant and put her to sleep before leaving for work. Around 30 minutes later, Green contacted her to come home. She told investigators the infant seemed okay when she left for work that day.

Credit: Sequoyah County Sheriff's Office
Dwight Green

The father told investigators the same thing, and within a couple of minutes of the mother leaving, the infant woke up. He told investigators he fed the child, and she had trouble drinking the formula. He went on to say he left the infant in the bedroom and took their other child to the kitchen to get her a drink of water. He said he was out of the room for 1 or 2 minutes before returning. He said the infant was gasping for air and became unresponsive and then limp.

The court records continue detailing the interview and say Green took the infant into the living room and had another person at the residence call 911.

He said he performed CPR on the infant until EMS arrived. The court records aren't clear on who the other person is other than to say, "Green stated no other person was around the infant after the mother left for work until she became unresponsive and carried into the living room."

A day after the infant was taken to the hospital, OSBI agents talked with a child abuse advocate who told them the type of injuries the infant suffered from were not caused by a short fall or a 2-year-old sibling. The court records go on to say, "a two-year-old is not developmentally coordinated or strong enough to cause these types of injuries, even if the two-year-old picks up a toy and hits an infant with a toy. A two-month-old is not developmentally coordinated or strong enough to engage in activities on her own that would cause any of the injuries, as described by Green and the mother."

The court documents go on to describe the advocates' assessment and say, " medical opinion was the incident causing the injuries to the (infant) happened within a very short time before the symptoms of (infant) gasping for breath and becoming unresponsive. (The advocate) stated (the infant) had abusive head trauma caused by the violent acceleration and deceleration of the brain in the skull. Facial bruising is indicative of abuse and a collapsed lung from physical abuse."

On June 15, 2021, the infant was removed from life support and pronounced dead.

On January 6, 2022, Dwight Green was arrested and booked into the Sequoyah County Jail on first-degree murder, the death of a child by injuring, torturing, and maiming charges. 

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