ARDMORE, Okla -- A man pleads guilty to severely abusing a newborn baby--but will do no jail time. Officials in Carter County say while this one case has drawn to a close, hundreds more are going undetected right now.

20-year old Brandon Davis of Ardmore was only 19 when authorities say he severely abused the infant.

After pleading guilty to the crime, he faces no jail time. Instead, probation and 100 hours of community service, leaving some to question if the punishment fits the crime. But officials say sadly this case is not unique, and child abuse cases are on the rise in Oklahoma.

"Not only striking the baby in the head and squeezing the child's abdomen, as he demonstrated in his statement to the police with a great deal of force, but also covering the child's nose and mouth and the baby stopped breathing and he recussitated the baby," said Carter County District Attorney Craig Ladd.

These are pictures from the Myspace webpage of Brandon Davis of Ardmore. Davis plead guilty to abusing the five week old child. Tuesday, he heard his sentence of probation and community service for a crime that District Attorney Craig Ladd feels deserved more.

"In our opinion child abuse cases are very serious offenses, so we expected severe punishment in this crime, I would expect a considerable amount of time in the penetentary to be severe punishment."

But this case isn't an isolated incident.

"Anytime there's a cut off of air supply, there's a potential for brain damage," according to Robert Lee, the Executive Director for the Mental Health Services of Southern Oklahoma.

"Child abuse is a growing problem, and we don't know if it's growing because there's more incidents, or because people are more willing to report it," said Lee.

And during the holidays, the numbers of child abuse cases can spike.

"Regardless of what statistics say, when you bring that down to individuals each one of us needs to be aware of what we're doing and and how we're feeling around the holidays," Lee said.

Lee says sometimes children can add to the stress of the holidays, but it's vital that parents know how to handle that stress, and not to take it out on their kids, because that's a crime that Ladd says he'll prosecute to the full extent of the law.

"We take these matters very seriously and I don't want this to send the wrong message, as for me and my office, we intend to treat those cases very seriously and to seek the most severe punishment we can for those offenders," Ladd said.

We did attempt to contact Mr. Davis for this story, he did not respond to our requests.