NJ Cop, Wife Charged In Baby's Brutal Beating And Death: Cops

A police officer in Mercer County was arrested Wednesday and charged with killing his 3-month-old daughter, prosecutors said. His wife was also charged in the child's brutal beating and death.

Medical personnel determined that the couple's three-month-old daughter, Hailey, suffered a fractured skull, brain bleed and had multiple fractured ribs, according to prosecutors.

Daniel Bannister, 31, a Ewing Township police officer, was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with the murder of his daughter, according to Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri.

He was taken into custody at the Wawa on Silvia Street in Ewing by detectives with the Mercer County Homicide Task Force.

Bannister had been suspended from the township police department since December 2018. He was hired in May 2017. The prosecutor’s office has filed a motion to detain him pending trial.

Catherine Bannister, 29, Hailey’s mother and Daniel’s wife, was also charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child in connection with Hailey’s death, according to the MCPO. The prosecutor’s office will be filing a motion to detain her pending trial.

The incident happened on December 5, 2018 when Ewing Township Emergency Medical Services responded to the Bannisters' Ewing home on a 911 call for an unresponsive 3-month-old baby who was having difficulty breathing, according to the MCPO.

Emergency medical technicians assessed the baby, who was not breathing and in cardiac arrest. The baby, later identified as Hailey Bannister, was transported to Capital Health Medical Center - Hopewell, according to the MCPO.

Hailey was initially listed in critical condition and transferred from Capital Health to Robert Wood Johnson Children’s Hospital in New Brunswick.

Because of the suspicious nature of Hailey’s injuries, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit and Homicide Task Force were contacted and advised of Hailey’s status. Detectives responded to Robert Wood Johnson Children’s Hospital and began
their investigation on December 5, according to the MCPO.

After several days of hospitalization, Hailey died on December 11, 2018.

An autopsy was conducted in December 2018 by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office and, following additional testing, analysis of medical documentation and forensic review, Hailey’s death was ruled a homicide, according to the MCPO.

It was concluded that Hailey’s cause of death involved complications from blunt impact trauma of the head. That included skull fractures and subdural hemorrhage. The nature of Hailey’s injuries indicated an ongoing pattern of abuse, according to the MCPO.