Man Charged For Death Of Infant Daughter Ordered To Stand Trial

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A man who was charged in October for the death of his five-week-old daughter will stand trial.

Joseph Swidorsky, 30, had his preliminary hearing Friday morning. In October, he was charged with criminal homicide and endangering the welfare of children for the death of his infant daughter, Braelyn.

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On June 15, 2015, Braelyn's mother told police she found her infant daughter in the bathroom, unresponsive and turning blue, after she had asked Swidorsky to give Braelyn a bath.

The baby's mother, Ashley Cain tearfully remembered the ordeal at Friday's hearing.

"I heard her crying then she stopped. When I saw her she was in cardiac arrest and blood was coming out of her nose and I asked him, 'What did you do to my baby?'"

West View Police were called to the home and Braelyn was sent to UPMC Children's Hospital, where she later died.

Swidorsky told police Braelyn was crying so hard that she stopped breathing, but an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head.

A witness reported overhearing Swidorsky say, "Braelyn is psycho baby and does nothing but cry all the time."

Swidorsky's attorney Pat Thomassey thinks there's another side to the story.

"There's no evidence that Mr. Swidorsky did anything to this child. The child has one bruise on her, unfortunately it's a subdural hematoma, but there's no evidence that he actually inflicted it. These cases, I call them the 'home alone cases', the child ends up with an injury that's isn't explainable and it doesn't always mean that someone intentionally inflicted it."