Taylor Grenier, who was charged with aggravated domestic assault in 2024 after her 11-month-old child was determined to have non-accidental injuries to his head, has accepted a plea agreement and will spend 30 days in jail and five years on probation. (Courtesy Vermont State Police)

BRADFORD — A 31-year-old woman took a plea deal to spend 30 days in jail and five years of probation for the aggravated domestic assault of her baby that critically injured him in 2024.

Two years ago, Vermont State Police arrested Taylor Grenier on a felony charge of aggravated domestic assault, carrying a maximum of 15 years in prison, and a misdemeanor of cruelty to a child, carrying up to two years in prison.

The Orange County State’s Attorney and Grenier’s public defender reached a plea agreement filed in April for her felony aggravated domestic assault charge, with the child cruelty misdemeanor dismissed. On Aug. 19, Judge Timothy Tomasi formally sentenced Grenier, who currently resides in White River Junction.

Vermont State Police do not have information on the current condition of Grenier’s son, who turns three years old on Friday. He had been removed from her custody.

Early on the morning of Aug. 8, 2024, Upper Valley Ambulance responded to a report by Grenier that her 11-month-old baby had rolled off a bed at the Bradford Motel where they were living, according to an affidavit filed by Vermont State Police. Emergency responders indicated that the infant suffered head bruising, was lethargic and his pulse was dropping; injuries they considered inconsistent with his mother’s report.

Medical staff from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center discovered several “non-accidental injuries,” namely internal bleeding near the child’s brain, spinal canal and eyes, as well as spinal ligament and soft tissue injuries. He experienced seizures and was intubated at the hospital, the affidavit said.

The physician’s report found that Grenier’s son likely experienced shaking coupled with an impact, based on scalp swelling on the left side of his head.

Police spoke with Grenier at the motel that afternoon, who said her son is a “happy baby who only cries for a bottle,” the affidavit stated. She added that he has slowed development and was not yet crawling.

Grenier further explained that her son went to sleep around 8 p.m. the following evening and awoke for a bottle around 2 a.m. They both fell asleep in her four-foot-high bed until Grenier heard a loud smack and found the baby lying on his back. He went limp when she picked him up, she said, and when he didn’t wake up to light slaps to the face, she called 911.

Talking to police, Grenier mentioned other recent incidents, including a fall the previous Saturday at a friend’s house when the baby hit his head on the carpeted floor, that her 80-lb. pit bull dog sometimes hits the baby’s face with his tail and a small fender bender that jolted her car with the baby inside.

Some people in Grenier’s life had different stories to share with police.

A friend who watched the baby claimed that Grenier would not take him to see a pediatrician. She said that Grenier gets overwhelmed when he cries, which is frequent; that she has witnessed her hitting the baby’s head while removing him from the car a few times; and that there were bruises on his face, which Grenier told her were from the dog’s tail.

The friend also shared that she’s never known Grenier to co-sleep with her son, and that Grenier previously claimed he fell out of his pack-and-play on the morning of the incident, not her bed.

This friend’s mother, when interviewed by police, said she also observed bruising on the baby’s forehead and further that he showed signs of sickness, such as throwing up.

She also claimed that Grenier frequently left her son alone in the car and recalled a situation one week prior in which he was “awake and crying in the nonrunning car with the windows partially down.”

The friend’s mother also shared that Grenier had a habit of leaving the baby on the couch alone to smoke outside, on one occasion saying that the “dog was watching him.” When the friend went inside, he was on the floor.

Those interviewed by police all said they had not observed Grenier intentionally injuring her baby, and she did not disclose abusing him in a phone conversation with her friend that police recorded.

The baby’s father passed away before he was born of a fentanyl and cocaine overdose in 2023. Norfolk, Va., police reported that Grenier was present and also appeared to be overdosing two days before her son was born. She later told police her marijuana must have been laced, according to the affidavit.

On Aug 13, five days after the baby was hospitalized, police interviewed Grenier again at the Berlin Barracks. She said that aside from the fall on the carpet at her friend’s house, the baby also fell a few days prior to the Aug. 8 incident in the hotel room when trying to pull himself up, and hit his head on the concrete floor.

Grenier told police she is not a drug user, but has anxiety, depression and undiagnosed post-partum depression, the affidavit said.

When police informed Grenier that her son’s injuries could not be from an accidental fall, she responded that she may have bounced him too hard trying to wake him up while emotional and “freaking out.”

Still, Grenier told police she never shook her child out of frustration or threw him down; she was just trying to wake him up. She further denied any abuse, but admitted that she may have jolted him while overwhelmed that evening. Police arrested her.

Grenier originally pleaded not guilty in Orange County Superior Court to aggravated domestic assault and child cruelty. She posted $10,000 bail with the conditions that she must adhere to a curfew and may not contact anyone interviewed in the case.

With the plea agreement, Grenier’s sentence of two to eight years in prison was all suspended, except for 30 days to be served immediately at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility. She will remain on probation for a five-year term, submit to random drug testing and searches and be screened for mental health and substance abuse issues to determine proper treatment.

Neither state’s attorney Colin Seaman nor Grenier’s attorney James LaMonda responded by deadline for a request for comment.