JAMES COPELAND

The Anderson Police Department broke open a 15-year-old cold case last week when they secured an arrest warrant on Sept. 17 for James Lee Copeland, 39, for the alleged murder of his 10-week-old son in 1993.

On Dec. 3, 1993, suspect James Copeland called 911 from his residence at 1720 North St. in Anderson, where he lived with Lori Kay Kaphamer, now 47. He reported that their son, Kevin Lee Copeland had stopped breathing.

Pronounced dead at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, the victim had sustained fatal injuries that included signs of trauma and bruising.

The baby’s injuries were reviewed at the University of California at Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

“They’re the experts,” said APD Captain Robert Kirvin of the doctors at U.C. Davis. “They’ve been handling child abuse cases for a long time in northern California.”

The doctors found that the baby sustained cranial swelling, hemorrhaging of the brain and retinal hemorrhaging. The doctors concluded that Kevin Copeland suffered from “shaken baby syndrome.”

Kirvin said the delay in solving the case was due to a lack of cooperation from the parents, whose lawyers made questioning difficult. He added that there were other elements that lead to the delay, but he said he would not comment about those until Copeland’s trial.

Kirvin said interviews this month were successful due to the span of 15 years, the separation of the couple, and the cooperation of the interviewees.

Detective Regina Collier spearheaded the investigation. She interviewed Kaphamer in Montana, and with Detective Robert Modine they interviewed Copeland in Milwaukie, Ore.

“Collier did a tremendous job,” Kirvin said. “She’s spent the last week and a half on this case.”

Copeland was to be transported to Shasta County Jail this week for arraignment, where he would be formally advised of the charges against him by court and given an opportunity for a lawyer to represent him.

As of last week, Copeland was in custody at the Multnomah County Jail in Portland.

“This was similar in nature to the Joshua Buck case,” Kirvin said, citing another fatal ‘shaken baby’ case on Oct. 12, 2007 in Anderson

Yet another shaken baby case surfaced in Anderson on March 20, 2008 when Michael Fidler, 21, was arrested after admitting to shaking a five-week-old baby girl to stop her from crying.

“I couldn’t tell you why we’ve had a streak of abuse,” Kirvin said. “My own personal opinion is that these are young parents without experience.”

Kirvin added that the abuse occurs independent of drug or alcohol use. Other kinds of domestic abuse generally involves a tie-in with drugs, he said, but not in the case of shaken baby syndrome.

“Babies are dependent solely on us,” said Kirvin of parenting. “The only way they can communicate is through crying, whether they need their diaper changed or they’re sick. Some young parents don’t understand that, their frustration level is so high and they take it out on the baby.”