WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A Wichita Falls father is now serving jail time after pleading guilty to breaking his 3-month-old daughter’s leg and earlier breaking two ribs while he was trying to make her stop crying.

Branden Webb was given a suspended 10-year sentence and 240 hours of community service. As part of the conditions he was to begin serving 90 days in jail last month, however, he got an extension to this month to begin serving that term to coincide with being released from the Air Force.

Police and Child Protective Services were called to the emergency room in 2022 when the baby was brought in for the leg injury. Doctors determined she had a buckle fracture to her left tibia.

Webb first said it was accidental and occurred when he was leaning over her on the bed, tickling her, and he pinned her leg on the bed under his body.

United Regional Health Care staff recommended further investigation. The baby was taken to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas for additional exams, and medical staff there discovered previous rib fractures that had partially healed.

CMC staff said such rib fractures are highly specific for abuse and result from forceful squeezing or compression of the chest wall. They said the leg injury was consistent with trauma and was more consistent with physical abuse than an accident.

Police again interviewed Webb and said he gave the same story about how the leg injury happened, and he said he did not know how his daughter’s ribs were fractured.

As the interview continued, the crimes against children investigator said Webb admitted he had lied about what happened and would tell the truth. He said a few weeks before the leg injury, his daughter was in her bassinet crying, and he moved it into the living room so she would not wake up his wife.

He said he then picked the baby up and tried to get her to stop crying and got angry and began squeezing her tightly around her torso and yelling at her to stop crying, but she began screaming.

The investigator said Webb then told him the leg injury occurred when his daughter was on the bed crying, and he lost his temper and leaned over her and yelled at her to stop. He said she had her leg up as he aggressively leaned over, causing it to break.

Police said he admitted lying about the injuries because he did not want his children taken away.