A Franklin Township man has been charged with the involuntary manslaughter of his child.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by trooper Gary Fedor of the Pennsylvania State Police, Lehighton barracks, and Trooper First Class Nicolas De La Iglesia in the case against Skylar Strickland:

At around 3:15 a.m. Sept. 10, a woman contacted 911 and reported that her 3-month-old son was not breathing and said her husband, Strickland, 32, had fallen asleep with their infant son in bed and the infant was not moving and his lips were turning purple.

Franklin Township police officer Christopher Lekka was dispatched and arrived on scene at the home on Fairyland Road where he assisted in performing CPR on the infant, who was transported to St. Luke’s Carbon Campus by Lehighton Ambulance Association, where he was pronounced dead at 3:48 a.m. by an emergency room physician.

The victim was identified as 3-month-old Atlas William Gerard Strickland.

Franklin Township Police Department Detective David Roberts, who was at the scene at 3:40 a.m., said Lekka told him Strickland made statements that he may have rolled over on his son while he was sleeping.

Strickland said he and his wife had consumed alcoholic beverages in the evening before falling asleep.

Strickland agreed to a blood test.

Roberts arrived at the victim’s residence and secured the scene until he was relieved by members of the PSP Lehighton barracks.

Strickland said that on the afternoon/evening of Sept. 9, he was working on the residence and painting one of the upstairs bedrooms designated for their children. During the evening hours he said he consumed two mixed Vodka beverages and one glass of bourbon to which he described as feeling a “buzz” from the drinks.

At 9 p.m., he said he smoked a bowl of what he described as his medical marijuana, and he and his wife took the baby up to their bedroom where he normally sleeps in a pack and play next to their bed. They would typically feed him his last bottle for the night around 11 p.m. to midnight before putting him to bed.

After consuming his last beverage, Strickland and his wife laid in bed while the victim napped before being fed his evening bottle. After the baby began to “fuss his mother changed his diaper, got him ready for bed, and then Strickland took him to feed him a 5-ounce bottle of formula.

The child’s mother then fell asleep while Strickland held the victim to feed him his bottle while lying in the bed. Strickland said that he fell asleep and later awoke discovering that the baby was lying face down in the bed next to him and the infant was unresponsive. He immediately woke up his wife and they contacted 911 for medical assistance.

During the execution of the search warrant, Strickland was asked about the location of his medical marijuana and told De La Iglesia that he had initially lied about the legality of the marijuana at his residence, and that there was a small amount of marijuana which had not come from a marijuana dispensary on the back deck. He said he had a glass smoking device on the back deck, which he had used to smoke the marijuana.

The toxicology report for Strickland’s blood samples tested positive for THC.

An autopsy was performed on the child states that he died of unexplained sudden death. Extrinsic factors include co-sleeping/bed sharing with an adult and being found in a prone position.

In addition to involuntary manslaughter, Strickland also faces a charge of endangering the welfare of children.

He is currently incarcerated in the Carbon County Correctional Facility in lieu of $75,000, 10 percent, monetary bail, and scheduled to have a preliminary hearing March 5 before District Judge William J. Kissner of Palmerton.