Police seized a baby changing table with splinters of wood damage during an investigation in the death of 20-month old Alexis Long, a police detective testified in Columbus Recorder’s Court today.

Jennifer Long, 35, was charged with murder and her husband Timothy Long, 46, faces a charge of second-degree cruelty to children after the child died Tuesday at Atlanta’s Egleston Children’s Hospital.

During a 9 a.m. hearing, the mother pleaded innocent to the charge but her husband waived his hearing after being released on $5,000 bond Thursday  from the Muscogee County Jail. Judge Cynthia Maisano ordered the mother held without bond on the murder charge and bound the case over to Muscogee Superior Court.

Police Detective Patrick Knight testified the couple had returned to their 1807 43rd St. Columbus home Sunday from a trip when Alexis had a temper tantrum. In a statement from the husband, Knight said the child’s mother threw Alexis on the changing table where she stopped crying and became unresponsive.

The child sustained an injury to the back of the head with slight bleeding and also had multiple injuries to the leg, arms and back. Police found fresh broken wood and splinters on the back of the changing table. “We recovered the whole table,” Knight told the court.
Police also seized a laptop computer from the home.

Represented by attorney Tim Flournoy of Columbus, Long didn’t testify at the hearing. When  the attorney asked Knight if information was consistent from the couple on what happened to Alexis, the officer said it wasn’t.

Flournoy declined to comment on the case as he left Recorder’s Court.