Greene man accused in infant abuse heading to court
A Greene County man accused of beating and sexually assaulting his 1-month-old infant son waived his case to court Friday.
Zachary Bryte, 26, of Washington Township, agreed to move forward without testimony during his preliminary hearing before District Judge Lee Watson.
Bryte was arrested and charged with attempted homicide in June after his son was taken to UPMC Greene with seizure-like symptoms. The child was then transferred to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va, where doctors found a skull fracture, brain bleeding, rib fractures and other injuries that they determined were consistent with severe trauma.
Initially hospitalized in critical condition, the child since has been released from the hospital, state police Trooper Kalee Barnhart said Friday.
Bryte’s formal arraignment is scheduled for July 23. He remains in the Greene County jail.
State police said Bryte had appeared to have abused the child since its birth. He admitted to having hit the child multiple times, in one instance hard enough to knock the child off the bed and hit his head on a wooden object, according to court documents filed in the case.
Other injuries he attributed to unintentionally falling down while carrying the child. In one instance, police said, he claimed to have fallen while walking uphill, throwing the child toward a landscaping box, after which the child rolled downhill as far as 20 feet and struck his head.
After claiming to notice the child was constipated during a diaper change, he also allegedly inserted an object into the baby’s rectum, according to the criminal complaint. The infant’s mother, Kyliene Rhome, told investigators she had not known the child to suffer from constipation.
Bryte is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault by an adult against a victim under 13, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a victim under 16 and aggravated indecent assault of a child.
Bryte had raised the child with Rhome, who, according to court records, told police she had known of abuse going back at least two weeks.
Rhome was subsequently charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Her formal arraignment is scheduled for July 28. She is free on bond.