Texarkana Man Indicted For Skull Fractures In 3-Month-Old Twins

NEW BOSTON, Texas — A Bowie County grand jury has indicted a Texarkana man accused of causing skull fractures in a set of 3-month-old twins last month.

Michael Jerome Cridell, 22, faces five to 99 years or life in prison on each of two counts of injury to a child if convicted.

Cridell was allegedly the only person alone with the children when both were injured on June 4, according to a probable cause affidavit. He was first charged after the mother of the twins took the baby girl to a local emergency room, where scans revealed she had a skull fracture. The baby girl was transported to Children’s Hospital in Little Rock for additional care.

A doctor at Children’s reportedly told investigators with the Texarkana Texas Police Dept. that the baby girl also had a broken femur bone in her leg and five fractured ribs which appeared to be older and healing, the affidavit said.

Personnel with Child Protective Services arranged for the baby girl’s twin brother and an older sibling to be checked at an area hospital where it was determined that the 3-month-old boy had suffered a skull fracture at the same time as his sister, the affidavit said.

Cridell is currently being held in the Bowie County jail with bail set at $1 million, records show.

Cridell is represented by the Bowie County Public Defender’s Office. The case has been assigned to 202nd District Judge John Tidwell.