JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – Prosecutors have charged a southwest Missouri man with killing his fiancée’s 18-month-old son the day after the boy’s mother was taken into custody for a mental-health evaluation.

Twenty-eight-year-old Eric Hicks was charged Friday in Jasper County Circuit Court with second-degree murder in the death of Emjay Corn of Joplin.

The probable-cause affidavit says police were called to the residence of Hicks and the child’s mother, Nichole Hall, on Oct. 27.

 

The visit resulted in the 32-year-old Hall being taken for the mental-health evaluation.

The very next day, Hicks is accused of causing blunt-force trauma to the boy’s head. Police were called to the residence again Oct. 29 and found the boy dead in his crib.

No attorney is listed for Hicks in online records.