Matthew Burry: Dad Charged In Death Of Baby Son, Wife Stands By Him — ‘Don’t Want To Lose My Husband’

On March 24, Matthew Burry, 33, of Westminster, Colorado, dialed 911 to report that his baby son, Dominic, was “unresponsive.” The little boy — who had been born a “preemie” in December 11, weeks before his scheduled due date — passed away just three days later on March 26, at the exact age of 15 weeks.

The cause of death was cardiac arrest. But when the little boy was in the hospital, doctors noticed something else unusual — a mark on the side of the baby’s face. According to the district attorney’s office in Colorado’s Adams County, they determined that the mark was caused by someone hitting the helpless baby across the face.

This week, more than three months after the death of his baby son, Dominic, known affectionately as “The Dominator,” Matthew Burry was arrested and charged with child abuse resulting in the death of the little boy.

Police say that Burry confessed to them that he hit the baby, because the prematurely born infant was crying and screaming, and he was trying to make him quiet down.

If, indeed, Matthew Burry is found guilty of causing Dominic’s death by striking him, it won’t be his first offense. According to Colorado Bureau of Investigation online records, 15 years ago, when Burry was 18-years-old, he was convicted of felony sexual assault and incarcerated.

But now, even with her new baby gone, Burry’s wife, Brittany, is coming to his defense, calling Matthew “a wonderful man” who is not responsible for the death of their Dominic.

“I lost a child, I do not want to lose my husband,” a tearful Brittany Burry told KDVR-TV News in Denver.

In an online posting, Brittany wrote that Dominic’s death was the result of “a tragic event that spiraled into multiple other events, ultimately forcing his family to make a very difficult decision to let him go.”

But in her interview with KDVR, Brittany, while insisting that “something happened, but it was not my husband,” told a slightly modified version of the story.

She admitted that her her husband did “tap” the baby. But, she insists, the “tap” was not enough to kill little Dominic.

“He did not smack him, he did not do any force,” she said. “But just trying to get a normal response, he tapped him.”

But when police obtained a journal kept by Brittany Burry, they found a strange entry, a passage in which she “expressed concern about Matthew striking Dominic in the stomach and abusing their pet dog.”

Now, Brittany Murphy says that the apparently incriminating journal entry was simply fiction, similar to expressing a wish to “kill someone,” but not meaning it literally.

The charges come just weeks after a 21-year-old mom in Auburn, Washington, was charged with killing her 3-year-old daughter by giving the little girl what the mom called a “whooping.”

Matthew Burry is being held on $100,000 bond. He is due back in court on Tuesday, July 7.

[Images: Dignity Memorial, KDVR-TV Screen Grab]