6-year-old Texas boy dies 2 months after neighbor allegedly hit him with baseball bat

By CNN Newsource

Published November 15, 2023 8:26 PM

By Steve Almasy and Joe Sutton, CNN

(CNN) — A 6-year-old Texas boy who was allegedly beaten by his neighbor with a baseball bat in his home has died after two months in a hospital, according to a GoFundMe post from the child’s father.

Jeremy Diaz was hospitalized September 11 after suffering skull fractures and brain swelling during an early morning attack, sheriff’s deputies say. Neighbor Daniel Logan hit Jeremy and Logan’s mother with a baseball bat after entering the Diaz home, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by a Williamson County Sheriff’s Office detective.

Jeremy died Tuesday morning, his father wrote.

“I was checking him and noticed a pale face and eyes with no motion. Then his heart stopped,” Arturo Diaz wrote in an update on the family’s GoFundMe page.

“They tried to resuscitate him, but it was not successful.”

“He fought for over 60 days and was improving, but at the end, the odds seemed against him and he gave up the ghost,” the father wrote.

Diaz called his son a wonderful and loving child who treated others as he wanted to be treated.

Logan, 39, is currently accused of two felonies, one count of injury to a child and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against a family member.

A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office wrote in a Facebook post that, if warranted, they will work with the district attorney’s office to present a case of capital murder to a grand jury.

Logan’s attorney, Marc Chavez, told CNN their prayers go out to Jeremy’s family.

“The entire situation is heart breaking. While the allegations sound troubling, we ask everyone to reserve judgment until all the facts come to light especially while we investigate issues related to serious mental illness,” Chavez said. “Until that time comes, we will continue to keep that family in our minds in hopes they find peace thru this tragic time.”

What the affidavit says happened

At 5:17 a.m. on September 11, Williamson County deputies responded to a disturbance in progress call in Georgetown, Texas.

Logan’s wife, Kristen, told deputies she was awakened by banging noises. She found the back door to her home open and fresh hole in a picket fence, according to the affidavit. She also saw the glass to a back patio door on her neighbor’s house had been shattered.

Kristen Logan said she then heard her mother-in-law, Cynthia Logan, yell from inside the neighbor’s house to call 911. She also heard another woman yelling. The elder Logan emerged through the patio door, her face covered in blood, the affidavit states the wife told them.

According to a detective who interviewed Cynthia Logan at the hospital, she told them she saw Daniel go up the stairs of the neighbors’ house. Cynthia Logan said she went upstairs too and found a child slumped over in the bedroom. She said she was hit with a bat when she told Daniel Logan to stop after he confronted a male in the house, the affidavit says.

Cynthia Logan’s discharge report says she suffered swelling around her left eye and a facial cut as well as losing one tooth, according to the court document.

Daniel Logan is being held on bonds totaling $650,000, according to online jail records. In October he was found incompetent to stand trial. He has a mental health hearing set for November 28, according to online criminal case records.