Charges: St. Cloud man ‘significantly intoxicated’ when he fell asleep on baby boy, suffocated child

A St. Cloud man was “significantly intoxicated” when he fell asleep in bed on his baby boy and suffocated the child, according to charges.

Joshua Alan Cox, 36, was charged this week in Stearns County District Court with two counts of second-degree manslaughter in connection with the death in September 2021 of 7-month-old Meyer Allen Cox at the family’s home in the 1700 block of Roosevelt Road.

Cox was charged by summons and is in court on Aug. 5. A message was left with his attorney seeking a response to the allegations.

According to the criminal complaint:

Jaricka Cox called police and said her son felt cold and his face appeared to be “smashed” and “wrong,” the charges quote her as saying.

Officers and other emergency responders went to the home on Sept. 22, 2021, attempted life-saving measures, but the boy died at the scene. An autopsy found that Meyer died from asphyxia due to unsafe sleeping conditions.

Joshua Cox told the officers that Meyer and another of his children went to bed with him about 11:30 the previous night. Jaricka Cox came home from work several hours later and awakened her husband, who saw that Meyer was not breathing and cold to the touch. He told the officers that Meyer was on his back when they went to bed.

Jaricka Cox report to the officers that she arrived home and saw Meyer on his stomach and her husband’s head on her son’s back. She added that she called Joshua Cox about 10 p.m. and “could tell by [his] voice that he was intoxicated,” the complaint read.

Police collected a blood sample from Joshua Cox about 8:20 a.m. and a test revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.128%. He said he had not had a drink after 10:30 the previous evening, when he drank three or four shots of Fireball whisky spread out over a period of time.

If to be believed about when he stopped drinking, that indicated to police that he “was significantly intoxicated at the time he placed [Meyer] into his bed and entered the bed with [the boy],” the charges continued. Also in the room was a baby’s bed.

Joshua Cox admitted to struggling with excessive drinking but believed he had it under control.

Officers looked about the home and saw multiple bottles of Fireball and other types of alcohol throughout the residence. The home was extremely cluttered and “nearly unlivable due to various other hazards,” the complaint noted.