A criminal complaint says people close to the baby described prior interventions only after the 7-month-old suffered a fatal emergency.
MILWAUKEE — When a 7-month-old Milwaukee girl died July 27, investigators learned that relatives and others said they had already witnessed troubling incidents involving the infant and her mother, allegations that prosecutors now cite in a felony child-abuse case against 22-year-old Makenzie D. Critton.
The timing of those disclosures is one of the most consequential parts of the public record. According to the criminal complaint, the child’s grandmother told police about a June episode only after officers were called to the home for the unresponsive baby. Other witnesses also described earlier conduct during the investigation. The available reports do not show that law enforcement had received those allegations before July 27. Prosecutors have since charged Critton with physical abuse of a child through repeated acts causing death, a charge that treats those alleged prior incidents as central to the case.
The grandmother’s account reached officers while emergency crews were trying to save the infant. She told investigators that weeks earlier she had seen Critton obstruct the baby’s breathing while the child was crying, according to prosecutors. The grandmother said she stepped in, removed the infant from Critton’s care and kept the child with her for the rest of that day. She did not report the episode to police at the time, the complaint says. After the July emergency, however, she told officers she feared the same kind of conduct might have happened again.
The baby’s father later described another alleged incident. According to local reporting on the complaint, he said he had intervened after encountering a situation in which the infant’s breathing appeared to have been blocked. Prosecutors say he confronted Critton and warned her against repeating the conduct. His account, if proved, would place another alleged episode between the grandmother’s June experience and the child’s death. Other friends or relatives interviewed by investigators also gave accounts of the infant being handled roughly, including allegations of shaking or striking.
None of those statements was a court finding. They are witness accounts that prosecutors included as part of the factual basis for the criminal charge, and Critton has not been convicted. Their importance comes from what investigators say they collectively show: several people around the child allegedly encountered concerning conduct before the fatal emergency, but those events were reconstructed for police largely after the baby’s death rather than through earlier police reports.
The July 27 investigation itself began without any of that history in the initial call. Critton contacted 911 and said her 7-month-old was not moving and was unresponsive, according to the complaint. Police arrived shortly afterward at the residence on North 25th Street. The infant had no pulse and was not breathing. Emergency personnel performed CPR for an extended period and regained a faint pulse before the child was transported to Children’s Wisconsin. Further resuscitation efforts failed, and the baby was pronounced dead later that day.
Critton initially told investigators that the child had awakened earlier that morning and that she had given the baby a bottle and changed her diaper. According to the complaint, she said the infant was then put in a car seat to sleep and Critton went back to bed. She told police she later awakened, checked on the child and discovered that the baby was not breathing. That version did not describe an intentional act immediately before the emergency.
Investigators continued questioning after speaking with the grandmother. Prosecutors say Critton then acknowledged that the baby’s crying had frustrated her. The complaint quotes her as saying, “I got frustrated.” She allegedly admitted that she intentionally held the infant’s face against her body until the baby stopped breathing or moving. Different news reports drawn from the charging document give different estimates of the duration she allegedly described, making it unclear which figure accurately reflects the filed complaint. The underlying allegation of deliberate obstruction is not disputed among the reports reviewed.
Police said Critton also described earlier episodes in which she interfered with the baby’s breathing. According to prosecutors, she told investigators the child had recovered on those previous occasions, leading her to expect the same result after the July incident. That alleged explanation is significant because it connects Critton’s interview to what the relatives said they had witnessed. The prosecution is relying on that combination of alleged admissions and witness accounts to argue that the child’s death followed repeated abuse.
Wisconsin law makes repeated physical abuse of the same child a distinct offense. The provision requires at least three qualifying violations within a specified period. If prosecutors prove that requirement and prove that at least one violation caused the child’s death, the offense is a Class A felony. That classification carries life imprisonment upon conviction. The serious potential sentence does not lessen the state’s burden: Critton is presumed innocent, and prosecutors must establish each required element through admissible evidence.
The medical determination is another part of the case that was not complete in the first reports. CBS 58 said the final cause and manner of the infant’s death remained pending after Critton was charged. Prosecutors have alleged that the repeated abuse caused the baby’s death, while the final medical finding had not yet been publicly reported in the material reviewed for this story. Any later medical evidence could become important in establishing or challenging the prosecution’s theory of causation.
The complaint’s account also illustrates the difference between what people around a child may privately know and what investigators can act on. The grandmother told police she intervened during one incident but did not make a police report then. The father described stopping another alleged episode. Other people later told detectives about additional conduct. The public reports do not provide enough information to determine why each person responded as they did, whether any allegations were communicated to other agencies or what information, if any, authorities had about the family before July 27. Those questions cannot be answered from the available record.
Critton appeared for an initial court appearance July 31 after prosecutors filed the felony charge. When detectives told her during the investigation that the infant had died, the complaint says Critton cried and said, “I am going to jail for a long time.” That remark is evidence prosecutors may rely on, but it is not itself a judgment of guilt. The case still requires the ordinary criminal process, including the opportunity for the defense to test witness accounts, challenge evidence and contest the state’s version of events.
As of the latest sources reviewed for this article, no final conviction or plea had been established, and the publicly reported final medical ruling remained unresolved. What is clear from the complaint is that the death investigation prompted people close to the infant to tell police about alleged incidents they said had happened earlier. Those disclosures transformed an emergency call about an unresponsive baby into a prosecution centered on whether the state can prove a fatal pattern of repeated abuse.
Author note: Last updated September 9, 2026.