Doctor accused of throwing 14-month-old daughter to her death

A doctor who told authorities his 14-month-old daughter fell out a window to her death has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Dr. Dennis Tison's daughter, Isabel, died of head injuries at a hospital January 12.

Tison has been arrested on suspicion of murder and child abuse.

He is being held without bail at Sacramento County Jail. Charges are expected to be formally brought at an arraignment on Wednesday.

Tison, who runs weight-loss clinics in Sacramento and Citrus Heights, told detectives he was using his home-office computer and Isabel was playing on top of his desk when she leaped out of the second-story window and fell to the wood deck below.

Tison's attorney, Don Heller, says he is surprised that authorities have decided Isabel's death was a murder. "Everything I have from my perspective is consistent with an accident, a tragic accident," Heller said.

But detectives said there are inconsistencies in Tison's account, according to court documents.

Based on a family video taken the day before Isabel's death, investigative reports questioned whether the child had enough ability to leap or jump out of the window.

A biomechanical engineer who was hired to evaluate what happens to a baby's body during a fall concluded that Isabel could not have gone out of the window "due to her own actions," court documents say.

Investigators also found blood 9 feet ( 2.7 metres) from the house, suggesting to them that the child was shoved rather than fell straight down, the documents say.