FORT VALLEY — The father of a severely injured 9-month-old boy was found guilty here Monday of murder, in what prosecutors said was a prolonged period of child abuse while his roaming family traveled the country in a motor home.
Christopher Scott Palmer, 43, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a weeklong trial in Peach County Superior Court in Middle Georgia.
The courthouse lies less than a dozen miles from a Buc-ee’s along I-75 where little Cody Palmer was found clinging to life, not breathing, the night of Jan. 30, 2022, in his parents’ recreational vehicle. Cody died a few days later at Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta.
An investigation into Cody’s death revealed he died of blunt force trauma. Prosecutors contended that on the night he was found limp by police and paramedics on the floor of his family’s RV, his father had struck him because he wouldn’t stop crying. Prosecutors said the baby had previously suffered broken ribs and legs during the weeks or months before he died.
Palmer testified Monday on his own behalf and said Cody fell and banged his head inside their Winnebago when he squirmed out of his hands.
However, photographs of the injured child shown to the jury revealed bruises on the baby’s forehead, face, legs, arms and torso that suggested the injuries could not have come from such a fall.
In testimony on Friday, an Atlanta doctor who treated Cody in the days before he died took the stand and described the signs of abuse he saw on the child — head-to-toe bruises, fractures and facial injuries — as “one of the most clear” cases of abuse he had ever encountered.
Cody’s mother, Shelly Deanna Rooks, 28, has also been charged with murder as it relates to child neglect, but she is not expected to face prosecution. In July 2022, she was declared incompetent to stand trial, due at least in part to a severe learning disability.
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