SAN ANTONIO – A man who confessed to police that he strangled his 2-month-old son has now changed his story.
In a jailhouse interview, Arjumkumar Rana said that he confessed to investigators about the slaying because he wanted to die for the death of his son, Alexander.
He said he is recanting that confession because "I realized it was a stupid mistake because that's only an insult to my son."
San Antonio police said Rana called 911 a few days after his son's death on March 24 saying he wanted to confess told them in great detail how he'd placed his thumbs on Alex's neck and tipped his head forward until he was dead. According to an affidavit, Rana told police he listened to Alex's chest to make sure he wasn't breathing then placed him back in his crib before going back to bed himself.
Rana now says the baby did wake up but Rana put him back to bed. Rana said he rushed out the door for work in the morning and didn't check on his son. EMS later responded to the house and found the infant unresponsive.
Alexander was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Rana, who is charged with capital murder of a child, said he feels responsible for his son's death because he didn't check on him or notice that something was wrong.
"I still felt responsible to this day because I felt like I should have woken up sooner to at least like at least check on him."
So, wanting to die, he called police days after his son's death and told them he strangled the infant in the hopes that he would be executed.
"Because I wasn't there enough for his lifetime," Rana said in the jailhouse interview. "I felt that well, maybe after like I die, I'd get to see him more often than I used to."
Rana's wife told police at the time that she thought he was lying about killing Alex because he was "frustrated." In any case, Rana wasn't charged until after the medical examiner's office ruled Alexander's cause of death last week as asphyxia by neck compression and the manner of death as homicide.
Rana said he doesn't know what happened to his son. However, he said Alexander had been taken to Methodist Children's Hospital a few days before his death for a respiratory infection, and Rana suggested that his son's death could be related to that.
"I mean he was spitting up blood," Rana said. Come on, that's not normal," he said.
The Methodist Healthcare System declined comment, citing privacy laws but said it always provides the highest level of care.
SAPD also refused to comment on Rana's recanting of his confession.
Rana remains in the Bexar County Jail with a $500,000 bail.