By Jeff Devine
OZARK — The Ozark Police Department has arrested a local man following an investigation into injuries a five-month-old child sustained that hospital staff determined were consistent with non-accidental trauma.
According to the Ozark Police Department, investigators responded to Flowers Hospital on October 27, 2025, after hospital personnel reported the infant was being treated for an acute oblique spiral fracture. The injury was believed to have occurred at a residence in Ozark.
During the course of their investigation, both parents were interviewed, and investigators identified the father, 27-year-old Christian Ayala Vargas, as a person of interest. Authorities say Vargas later confessed to struggling with anger and a lack of self-control, which allegedly led to the injuries described.
Vargas has been charged with one count of torture/willful abuse of a child and is currently being held at the Dale County Jail pending further court proceedings.
It is the Dale County Chronicle’s general policy to include the following statement on all news reports involving an arrest: in the criminal justice system, all suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
*Photo courtesy of the Ozark Police Department.
