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Man accused of injecting infant son with HIV
April 22, 1998
Web posted at: 10:26 p.m. EDT (0226 GMT)ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- A 31-year-old hospital worker was charged with first-degree assault Wednesday for allegedly injecting his infant son with the AIDS virus six years ago to avoid paying child support.
Brian T. Stewart, of Columbia, Illinois, was arrested Tuesday and is being held on $500,000 bond, according to Lt. Craig McGuire, spokesman for the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department.
The county prosecutor said Stewart was charged with first-degree assault because that felony charge can result in a sentence of 10 years to life, longer than the sentence for an attempted murder conviction.
Investigators believe that Stewart, a hospital worker who takes blood samples from patients for testing, injected his son with HIV on February 6, 1992, when the boy was 11 months old and was about to be discharged from St. Joseph's West Hospital in Lake St. Louis after treatment for a respiratory problem.
The boy, now 7, was admitted to Children's Hospital in St. Louis on May 17, 1996, and was diagnosed May 25 as HIV-positive. The boy now has AIDS.
The sheriff's office launched a two-year investigation, which led to the father's arrest.
Stewart, who once lived with the mother of the child, has been legally found to be the boy's father.
A sheriff's office spokesman said Stewart told the mother not to seek child support because the boy was not going to live long. He was ordered by a court to pay $267 in child support every month.
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