Man Indicted for Murder in Beating Death of 3-Year-Old Son

A Montgomery County grand jury on Thursday indicted a Damascus man in the beating death of his 3-year-old son.

Brian O’Callaghan, 36, a former Marine, was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse resulting in the death of his son, Hyunsu.

Investigators were called to Children's National Medical Center in Washington on Feb. 2 and told the boy's injuries, including trauma to the brain, indicated he had been beaten, WJLA reported. The child died the next day and police say an autopsy determined the manner of death was homicide by multiple blunt impact injuries.

Hyunsu, who would have been four in May, had skull fractures, bleeding in his brain and hemorrhaging in his eyes when he arrived at the hospital and doctors were concerned that he was "brain dead," WTOP reports.

O'Callaghan told police that his son slipped in the shower. But investigators say a typical child's fall would not have caused Hyunsu's fatal injuries.

The O'Callaghans adopted Hyunsu from Korea and his father told police that the two had not bonded since the boy came to live with the family last fall.

If convicted, O'Callaghan faces up to life in prison.