Friend: Accused man took path of self-destruction

LYNN – A longtime friend said he could not believe Anthony Gideika, the city man charged Wednesday with beating an infant to death, would purposely have killed the child.But the friend also said Gideika should not have been caring for the deceased and the child’s twin brother, describing how Gideika abused drugs to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after returning from serving in Iraq.”I don’t think he purposely, in my heart, I don’t think he shook [the baby] or slammed it; but I could definitely see him dropping it,” Chris Webb, Gideika’s friend since high school said. “He was already a self-destructive kind of person the last couple of years from the Army, and now he has to live with having the baby die, which is honestly why I believe he didn’t do anything on purpose to his baby.”Anthony C. Gideika, 32, of 526 Western Ave. #1, was charged with assault-and-battery on a child with substantial injury in the death of 3-month old Chase Gideika. A judge ordered Gideika held on $100,000 cash bail at his arraignment in Lynn District Court last Wednesday. Gideika is scheduled to return to court July 25.Police responded to the Western Avenue apartment early July 8 and found the victim bruised and not breathing.Doctors said the infant had been shaken violently and slammed within the past 24 to 48 hours Gideika was caring for the child and his twin brother while the baby’s mother, Jennifer Nelson, also Gideika’s girlfriend, was at a tattoo party, according to police and prosecutors.The child suffered a fatal head injury, skull fractures, leg fractures, and other injuries, dying the morning before the arraignment.Prosecutors said Gideika had recently learned he was not the twins’ father and was “self-medicating” with Klonopin to handle post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in Iraq. Gideika pleaded not guilty and maintained that he had dropped the baby several times and any injuries were involuntary.In interviews Thursday and Sunday, Webb was clear that he was “not trying to defend” Gideika.He acknowledged Gideika’s drug addiction and said accounts of the case – as well as photos from Gideika’s appearance in court – led him to believe Gideika was not functional.”When he was in this state of mind, he shouldn’t have been left caring for the babies and anybody should have realized that,” Webb said.But Webb also said there was a lot more to the story than people reading media accounts might know.Webb said he and Gideika have been friends since they attended Bishop Fenwick High School in Peabody, from which they both graduated in 2000. He recalled Gideika as an outstanding running back on the football team and a track star, and also as one of the “top three funniest” people he has ever met.Webb said Gideika would joke and say outrageous things just to see how people would react; Webb said there was “zero percent truth that he would seriously sell the baby for $2,500,” as Gideika’s neighbors alleged. Neighbors told The Daily Item they had offered to adopt the deceased child or his brother and Gideika named that price.But Webb, who said he took a trip to Florida just before Gideika was deployed, said his friend returned from serving in Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder.Webb said he learned Gideika was a combat technician who would scout areas for land mines in advance of combat troops. Webb said Gideika had also recounted how the vehicle in which he and others were riding had once run over a land mine and exploded.”There are not many things that stick in my mind about him in the Army, but I remember he said ?it feels so good to be back because I don’t have to wake up every day and worry about being killed,'” Webb recalled.But not all of Gideika’s Army friends returned home.Webb said Gideika would use Facebook to check up on his fellow soldiers still in Iraq. Webb recalled that the only time Gideika ever asked Webb to leave his home was after Gideika saw a close friend’s account had been deleted after the friend wa