He hadn’t wanted his girlfriend to go through with her pregnancy, according to investigators. When she did, Curtis Jack took matters into his own hands and poisoned his own 18-day-old baby.
When the ill newborn was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite in October 2020, she tested positive for ethylene glycol, a chemical compound commonly found in antifreeze, South Fulton police previously said.
This week, a jury found Jack guilty of criminal attempt to commit murder and first-degree cruelty to children. He was sentenced to 50 years, including 40 to serve in prison.
“A special thanks to Madam Fani Willis and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office in obtaining justice for the victim and her mother,” the South Fulton Police Department said in a social media post.
The use of antifreeze as a poison is not new, and in Georgia was used twice by the same woman to kill a husband and a boyfriend in a high-profile case that ended in 2007. The two men didn’t know each other and their deaths came nearly six years apart. But the two were linked to the same woman: Lynn Turner.
Both Glenn Turner, 31, a former deputy sheriff in Forsyth County who died in 1995, and Randy Thompson, 32, a Forsyth firefighter at the time of his death in 2001, suffered flu-like symptoms before they were discovered dead. Both deaths were initially ruled as natural, and both were blamed on the same cause: cardiac dysrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat.
After Thompson died, authorities exhumed Glenn Turner’s body and retested both men’s tissues. A lab in Pennsylvania confirmed both had died from poisoning by ethylene glycol.
Credit: Calvin Cruce, AJC
Credit: Calvin Cruce, AJC
Lynn Turner was convicted of both murders and sentenced to life in prison. But she died by an apparent suicide in 2010.
According to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ethylene glycol is a colorless, odorless, syrupy liquid that can cause death if swallowed. It can also harm the eyes, skin, kidneys and respiratory system.
Antifreeze may have a sweet taste, according to the National Capital Poison Center, but a lot of brands now include a bitter substance, the organization says.
In the recent case investigated by South Fulton police, the victim of the poisoning survived, though no information was released on any medical issues the baby suffered.
On Sept. 24, 2020, Jack’s girlfriend gave birth to their daughter, according to police.
“The woman and Jack, both employees at a company, had been in an intimate relationship since January 2020,” police said.
Days later, the baby’s mother was hospitalized and the newborn’s grandmother had to care for the baby. Jack took breastmilk for the baby to the grandmother, according to police.
“After delivering the breastmilk to the child’s grandmother, who was also caring for the woman’s other daughter, the child became critically ill within 24 hours, suspected of being poisoned,” police said. “Jack admitted to adding antifreeze to the breastmilk to South Fulton Police Department detectives.”
