FIRST ON 3: Father jailed under $3M bond after son suffers fractured skull

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A New Hanover County man is in jail under $3 million bond after his 4-year-old son suffered a fractured skull and other injuries, according to the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Jerry Brewer says detectives were called to New Hanover Regional Medical Center Saturday afternoon about the boy.

Detectives say the child was home all day with his father Joshua Lewis Johnson, 40, who told investigators he was asleep and woke up and found the boy unconscious. According to the Sheriff’s Office Joshua Johnson called his wife, who came home from work and took her son to the emergency room. In addition to the skull fracture, investigators say the boy had scratches and bruises, Brewer said. According to an arrest warrant, the child also suffered a brain bleed.

The boy was immediately airlifted to Chapel Hill Medical Center, where he was in critical condition, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Detectives arrested Joshua Johnson this morning. He made his first court appearance this afternoon. He is in the New Hanover County Detention Facility charged with assault inflicting serious injury, felony child abuse, child abuse/neglect and assault on a child under 12.

Johnson is a registered sex offender, Brewer said. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety website shows Johnson spent more than five years in prison after being convicted of attempted rape.