A San Jose man was recently arrested in Southern California and charged in the November death of his 5-month-old son, after an autopsy concluded this past summer declared that the infant suffered severe and serial physical abuse, authorities said.
Julian Morgan Matias Taylor, 27, was arrested Monday in Palmdale and was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail that same day, according to San Jose police and jail records. He is being held without bail.
Police said around 4 p.m. on Nov. 3, 5-month-old Xavier Prince Taylor was the subject of a 911 call that summoned officers to a home in the 4500 block of The Woods Drive. He was reportedly unconscious and not breathing, and responding officers found the infant on a floor and his father performing CPR.
The officers and arriving medical personnel took over the resuscitation efforts, and Xavier was taken to Valley Medical Center, according to a police affidavit. At the hospital, doctors informed police that the infant had two brain bleeds they believed were suffered in separate instances and a fractured femur, and that he was likely brain dead.
Xavier died Nov. 9, prompting a homicide investigation that eventually identified Taylor as a possible suspect in the death. Last month, on July 22, police were alerted by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office that the death was deemed a homicide, based on “multiple traumatic injuries” the infant suffered.
Court records show Taylor was charged July 25 with one felony count of assault on a child likely to cause great bodily injury resulting in death, and an arrest warrant was issued for him. He had a scheduled arraignment Tuesday. If convicted, he could face a prison sentence of 25 years to life.
According to the police affidavit that accompanied the criminal charge filing, Taylor told investigators that earlier in the afternoon on Nov. 3, while he went to the bathroom Xavier fell off a small couch while swaddled in a blanket and strapped in a “bouncy chair.” He also reportedly said he checked his son for injuries at the time and when he brought the child to the home of his fiancée’s mother, and did not notice anything amiss.
Later that day, Taylor reportedly said he noticed Xavier’s cheek and eye were swollen and that the infant was crying, and a short time later, saw that Xavier had stopped breathing.
Four days after the 911 call but before Xavier died, police said they received a medical report outlining an array of injuries “consistent with abusive head trauma”: severe traumatic brain injury, a fractured right femur, retinal hemorrhages in both eyes, and “concern for brain death.”
On Nov. 11, two days after Xavier died, a preliminary examination of his body by the coroner’s office indicated that the infant’s injuries “were not consistent with the fall” Taylor described, the affidavit states.
In a follow-up interrogation, Taylor altered the initial account he gave police, saying he noticed redness and bruising in his son’s cheeks after the couch fall, and claimed his fiancée’s mother, a registered nurse, examined the infant but that he “appeared fine,” according to the affidavit. Later in the afternoon, when Taylor claimed he noticed his son not breathing, he said he could still hear a heartbeat.
Taylor’s fiancée said in her own statement to police — and summarized in the affidavit — that while out grocery shopping she had gotten a call from Taylor to tell her about the couch fall, and that once she got home she noticed bruising under Xavier’s eyes. A short time after, she said, when Taylor screamed to call 911, the infant was struggling to breathe.
The affidavit also cites medical records that include doctor’s opinions that Xavier’s injuries were not accidental, based on signs including the non-mobile infant suffering bruising, head trauma, fractures in different stages of healing, the injuries not having a clear and understandable history, and the caregiver’s inconsistent explanations for the injuries.
SJPD Detective Christina Jize concluded in the affidavit that Xavier “sustained injuries causing great bodily injury and death under the care of Suspect Julian Taylor,” and that the injuries “were intentional acts.” The document, however, does not detail any direct evidence of Taylor injuring his son.
Xavier’s death retroactively becomes the city’s 29th homicide of 2024 investigated by San Jose police.
Anyone with information for investigators can contact the SJPD homicide unit at 408-277-5283 or email Detective Sgt. Richard Martinez at 3934@sanjoseca.gov or Detective Christina Jize at 4324@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.