Malden Man Charged With Injuring Child In Car Windshield Smashing: DA

MALDEN, MA — A Malden man was set to return to court for a pre-trial hearing Wednesday after being accused of backing into a vehicle then smashing its front and back windshields with a baseball bat, injuring a one-year-old child, the Suffolk County District Attorney said in a news release Sunday.

Clifford Jones, 66, has been free since posting the $7,500 bail ordered by a judge at his arraignment last month, WCVB reported.

Jones is accused of fleeing the scene at around 6:15 a.m. on July 18 after hitting a car on Camden Street in the South End of Boston, officials said.

The victim told police that after Jones backed into the victim's car, a verbal argument ensued, after which Jones began smashing the windshields of the victim's car, according to officials.

The victim's one-year-old child was hit by falling glass and taken to the hospital with cuts and lacerations, officials said.

Jones was arraigned later that day on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a child under 14, malicious destruction of property, possession of a class D substance, selling unstamped cigarettes, and selling cigarettes without a license, officials said.

An aluminum bat was located on scene and hundreds of packs of cigarettes affixed with New Hampshire tax stamps, along with various nicotine and THC oil cartridges and packages of marijuana were recovered from Jones’s vehicle, officials said.

Jones has an extensive Massachusetts and out-of-state record, dating back to 1975, according to officials.

"This was a terrifying sequence of events for the victim and for the victim’s child. It’s tragic that such a young child witnessed this and sustained injuries severe enough to be hospitalized," Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in the news release. "Minor motor vehicle accidents happen all the time. But to react with such violence, and with no hesitation in placing a child in danger, is intolerable."