Marietta Man Sentenced for Shaking Infant

A Marietta man will spend the next 20 years in prison after he was convicted of shaking his infant daughter so violently it gave her permanent brain damage, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.

Matthew Len Nutt, 27, was convicted of one count of cruelty to children in the first degree and three misdemeanor counts of simple battery on Tuesday and was given the maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars on Friday by Cobb Superior Court Senior Judge James G. Bodiford on Friday, according to the DA’s Office.

Nutt was at home with the 3 month old child on July 3, 2011, when the injuries occurred. Nutt did not call 911, but instead called his wife and said he had dropped the child on her head while he was vacuuming, prosecutors said. Nutt’s wife told him to take her to the ER.

Doctors said the child’s significant injuries didn’t match with Nutt’s story, and testified in court that the little girl had suffered severe head trauma, according to the DA’s Office. Now 4 and a half, the girl cannot speak and has trouble walking.

Nutt later admitted to Cobb police that he had shaken his daughter because her cries were irritating him, the DA’s Office said.

“This was no accident,” ADA Lindsay Gardner said. “This case is about the defendant’s frustration and anger with a three-month-old child. He showed his true colors when he admitted that her cries sounded like nails on a chalkboard.”