(Michigan) Police: Man tortured 4-year-old to death for wetting his pants

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- A Michigan man could face life in prison after he allegedly tortured and ultimately killed his girlfriend's 4-year-old son last week for wetting his pants, prosecutors say.

Brandon Joshua-Frederick Hayes, 24, "systematically beat" Dominick Calhoun, 4, "pummeling (him) with fists and kicking him" on his arms, legs and genitalia, Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton told CNN.

Hayes also apparently burned the boy in the course of the torture. "The knuckles across one hand were charred," Argentine Township police chief Dan Allen said.

"I've been doing this a long time, and this is the worst case of child abuse I've ever seen," the police chief said. "In all respects, he was tortured."

...

Dominick's mother, Corrine Baker, was present for at least some of the beating and tried to shield the boy from Hayes' aggression, authorities said.

"She tried to lay on top of the child to guard the child against being beat any further, but she was beat in the process," according to the police chief.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/15/michigan.child.torture/index.html?hpt=T2

How can anyone do this to a child?

your comment is as ignorant and stupid as any freeper comment about how Obama is to blame for an incident like this.

Can you not read? Can you not follow a thread of conversation here?

It doesn't make who is the White House. This shit happens.

Not everything political.

I hope this creep gets burned.

... and that is, the death penalty.

As much as I agree what started out as a baby ended up as a MONSTER, I am not sure what we do to deter, or punish with punishment by death.

It's a really hard subject, isn't it? I keep thinking it through and search for the answer, "HOW did this person turn into THAT monster? I really wish I could understand the process to DETER what I'll call "monsterhood"

I mean, just take a look at kids who have the misfortune to have been brought into the world by parents who don't love them, or teach them hate.

This is why (I believe) we have hate crimes and produce psychopaths who murder other people's children, if not their own.

Yep, I don't know what to think about this monster and how he got that way, but I want it to STOP. That child had nothing to say about the monster who ultimately tortured and murdered him.

What a Godamned shame, God-damn-it!

maybe it does have it's place.

For some, there is no point in letting them savor even prison life.
Molesters, child beaters, rapists and killers.
Sorry, I appreciate your feelings, mine run otherwise.

They deserve to die.

...it's that innocent people are scooped up in the process.
That makes it a non-starter.

That's one thing even prisoners don't stand for: child killers.

... in prison.

I DO NOT advocate the death penalty, but maybe some water-boarding for this guy? He could take Sean Hannity's place in doing it for charity, since Seanny Boy chickened out.

As always, the biggest problem with a death penalty is the possibility of executing an innocent person. If you say "well, we will only execute if we are really really sure," then you end up with two standards... i.e. we can imprison you if we're ALMOST sure, but only kill you if we're ABSOLUTELY sure. Legitimizing imprisoning people if we're "almost" sure is not reasonable (even though, in practice, it happens). So to prevent the possibility of executing innocent people (who otherwise, imprisoned, would at least have a *chance* of clearing their name and getting out), the only answer is not to execute even people like Hayes.

"satisfying" is not really the right word. But it is the only one that comes to mind right now.

you're not helping your own argument.

We accept that we can imprison people if they are guilty beyond reasonable doubt, we don't require absolute certainty, which is nearly impossible to have, in a case where any defense is mounted whatsoever. We *know* that there is a small but very real possibility that an innocent person will be imprisoned. We've seen it happen time and time again. We accept that there's no way to completely avoid that. But at least the person has the possibility of eventually being cleared, a possibility which does not exist if we kill them.

If we argue that we'll only kill them if we're really, really sure, THEN we're opening the floodgates for the argument to not imprison anyone else, because, well, we're not sure. Pragmatically speaking, we can't have two legal standards, proven guilty enough to jail vs. proven guilty enough to kill.

So I think the best of a number of flawed options is to accept "beyond a reasonable doubt" as we do now, but not kill anyone.

... the right-wingers, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, Dick Cheney, and a few others would be defending and advocating this.




:puke:

When are women going to wise the fuck up? If they are not the fathers, then KEEP THEM AWAY FROM YOUR KIDS.

when are men going to stop being abusive fucking asshole jerks?

of course it's mom's fault though :eyes:

His only line of defense was his mother. It's BOTH of their faults.

It's often very hard to get out of an abusive relationship.

that some women may find it upsetting and difficult to leave or to call authorities, but when a child's health, safety, and welfare is at stake, there are no excuses. She is the parent, it is 100% her job to keep her child safe, no matter the circumstances. Same would be true for a father living with a woman who abused his children. Same is true for married biological parents who abuse. There is no escaping the fact that allowing someone to abuse your child, and not removing the child from the situation, makes you complicit in the abuse.

because, dammit, there should be no drunk drivers on the road, and nobody should be texting or eating a whopper while driving!

People are going to continue to do stupid and evil things, your last and sometimes only line of self-defense is you.

Thanks.

kill the kids sometimes. Many times it's the moms bf too. You can look at the link at the top of this article for a typical example. Now start reading your local news and you'll see this, and more often guy killing his girlfriend or wife, all the fucking time.

...something like 90% of trauma hospitalizations for 0-3 month-olds were for injuries inflicted by the father. Shaking the baby and what-not.

Exhausted, baby can't be consoled, etc. I haven't been there, but I've been where I could see "there" from where I was, and it filled me with terror to recognize how hard I was working not to go there.

This guy however sounds like he started on third base, if you follow.

Why don't you try some unwanted celibacy on for size? I at least did not have to depend on anyone besides myself, the State and my family to keep the kids fed, clothed, etc. Not to mention why I divorced their father in the first place.

No, the problem is not within the women.

You don't think a child should be raised or be near an adult male who is not the biological father?

have unsupervised contact with her children, or allow them to discipline her children--no "babysitting" UNTIL they are known to be trustworthy and the relationship is solid and committed. That sort of trust takes time, and observation. I would not trust men with my children right away.

I don't have kids, and my girlfriend doesn't, but I imagine that male friends of mine who married women who had children might disagree with you there. You know, I don't think my uncle who married my aunt - both of them already had kids - was never really in danger of murdering my cousin when he moved in with them. What kind of fucked-up world do you live in where that's what you deduce from this situation?

I have been in a relationship with a woman who had a beautiful daughter -- I would NEVER have struck that child -- EVER! She was left in my care often and I was not the father. She was no angel by any means, but she was a CHILD and a HUMAN BEING and a great source of joy for me. What you said is COMPLETELY IGNORANT AND INSULTING!

Maybe stupid women should choose better fucking boyfriends!

When are women going to wise the fuck up?

So...which is it? The mom or the boyfriend?

I'd say stupid is more dangerous.... stupid like your post...

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

That was awful and untrue.

to be frequently mentioned in news articles like this as the cause of the abuse/neglect, don't they?

The fact of the matter is, no one should have anyone as clearly deranged as this near ANYONE's child. It has nothing to do with the person the mother may wish to remarry.

What makes this statement come out of some are personal experiences, not the truth.

His mother married a guy that she divorced because she said he drank too much, and was mean to my grandson. We kept a close watch to be sure he wasn't showing up with bruises, etc. Fortunately, nothing happened to indicate abuse. My grandson is a smart little guy and would report to us if anything like that was happening. However, the ink on his mother's divorce papers aren't even dry, and she already has a guy living with her. She's a gold digger and only looks for who will support her, so the guys are usually money-makers. So far, the guy seems ok, but unfortunately, as we all know, no matter how anyone appears, anyone can be a child-molestor, or child-abuser, so his father and I both carefully monitor the situation.

I disagree though that, if they are not the fathers, they should keep them away from their kids. There are many biological fathers (and mothers) that abuse their kids; however, I do agree that there are many women that seem to hang on to a guy, and will put up with more than they should, especially when it comes to their kids.

So, no.

but so can certain girlfriends. Look at the cases in the news about step moms killing their step children. Some people are just monsters. Evil isn't gender specific.

Plus some biological parents have been known to abuse and kill their kids too.

Like so many things its not an issue that can be generalized as group specific.

Its just sad and awful no matter who the perpertator is.

Hasn't it been proven that children are more at risk with the boyfriends/nonspouses of the mother? Here you go, from the Department of Health and Human Services:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/abuse_neglect/natl_incid/nis4_report_exec_summ_pdf_jan2010.pdf

<<Family structure and living arrangement. Family structure reflects the number of parents in the household and their relationship to the child; living arrangement reflects their marital or cohabitation status. Considering both factors, the NIS–4 classified children into six categories: living with two married biological parents, living with other married parents (e.g., step-parent, adoptive parent), living with two unmarried parents, living with one parent who had an unmarried partner in the household, living with one parent who had no partner in the household, and living with no parent. The groups differed in rates of every maltreatment category and across both definitional standards. Children living with their married biological parents universally had the lowest rate, whereas those living with a single parent who had a cohabiting partner in the household had the highest rate in all maltreatment categories. Compared to children living with married biological parents, those whose single parent had a live-in partner had more than 8 times the rate of maltreatment overall, over 10 times the rate of abuse, and nearly 8 times the rate of neglect.>>

While of course not all nonspousal partners abuse kids, it's pretty clear to me that they do present a risk.

ON EDIT: The obvious link and snip.

And it only makes sense when you think about it -- to some nonspousal partners, the kids are nuisances; the level of patience just isn't there; there is no deep emotional (or otherwise) bond; and with lower socioeconomic factors, other things come into play as well. But as you're the only one who deems to reply, I guess people believe want they want to believe. Whatever.

In my large city alone so far this year, there have been at least 10 reported cases of abuse. Half were at the hands of nonspousal partners, the other half split among other family members and friends (uncles, neighbors, etc.), and teachers. While nonspousal partners don't guarantee abuse, it sure raises the risk of it.

25% of all child abuse is caused by the biological father. Only 14% of child abuse is caused by "others", including strangers, other relatives, step-parents, "mothers boyfriends", etc. There are some media driven "common knowledge" facts in our society that simply don't hold up under scrutiny. Like the "fact" that mom's boyfriend is a huge danger. Or even that mom is generally the "protector" while dad is the "abuser". The actual arrest and conviction numbers don't corroborate either of those beliefs. And yet most Americans take them as Gods Truth, never questioning their sources.

And where do my facts come from? US Department Health & Human Services, 2006 Report on Child Abuse in America.

You want some more disturbing statistics?

80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from homes without male role models (Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 14, p. 403-26)
71% of all high school dropouts come from homes without male role models (National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools)
70% of juveniles in state operated institutions come from homes without male role models (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report Sept., 1988)
85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in homes without male role models (Fulton County Georgia jail populations & Texas Dept. of Corrections, 1992)

But you go right on ahead bashing men, even though the statistics make it QUITE clear that the odds of abuse at the hands of a step-parent are very small, and that children with a male role model in the home are much more likely to succeed as students and grow into successful adults...and that the statistics show NO real statistical difference between a biological father, an involved "boyfriend" or stepparent, or even a live in male grandparent acting in that position.

My mother always stepped back and let him at me...

I appreciate Baker's fear but she gave it a try.

As a single mom and DV survivor...NOBODY gets to come home with me or MEET my kids unless I have dated them for at least 6 months and know they are not harboring some secret evil within. I hate to say it but the mother laying on top of her child to protect him was too little too late.

:cry: this is gut wrenching, but I WISH some of the mothers out there had either parenting classes or some other resources to know they don't need to have a man in their home to make a family or complete them...especially when the man is a monster. It just makes me shake my head...

I got out as soon as I realized my kids were going to be next after me... I wish there were more resources, education and therapy for women who are trapped in these situations.


(edit: boyfriends was typed as boy "fiends"...hmm freudian slip?)

and child protective services have had previous vists with the mother...

I have no doubt she will be charged....As a mother - Epic Fail-


And this creep, I would tie him down, start the compressor and grab my finishing nail gun...for starters

who put up with this guy abusing her son for weeks because she did jump on top of the kid to try to protect him, but on second thought she brought the guy to her child and let him beat her kid for weeks - per the article, so I guess I don't really feel sorry for her. I feel sorry for the kid.

Really the mom and the boyfriend should both be put in jail for murder. I don't care how helpless the mom claims she was, the kid was her responsibility to keep safe.

This is plain wrong. I don't care how poor self esteem he may have, she's incapable of making a motherly decision. The reaction should have been to fight to the death over this. I'd find the adrenaline to shield this child just a little better and make minced meat of that piece of shit.

( no I don't mean that literally. )

"The sequence of events that led to the discovery of the abuse began when Baker's sister and several acquaintances came to the apartment to buy drugs from Hayes, according to Allen. After seeing Dominick's condition, the sister alerted the boy's paternal grandfather, who in turn contacted authorities."

Just a severely fucked up environment.

:grr:

I'm sorry, but when you bring a child into this world you have a responsibility to see to it's welfare. This means not living with people who continuously beat them - it's not a difficult concept. Yes, it can be psychologically difficult to get out of an abusive relationship. Yes, it is potentially dangerous. This does not, however, alter the responsibility of the parent. It's a sad and shocking story and the man IS a monster. But the mother is only slightly less of a monster. She knew of this abuse, she allowed it to continue - she may have attempted to do something when the vermin was beating the child to death, but it was far too little, far too late.

At the very least she should be sterilized so that someone this stupid and irreponsible does not continue to reproduce.

i guess it's ok if he left his son in the care of his "irresponsible" ex-wife and her boyfriend....

bio-dad is EQUALLY responsible for bringing that child into the world ... but he could have disappeared who knows when, so of course everything bad that happens is mom's fault. maybe he was in the boys life, and then even more shame on him for doing nothing.

why didn't bio dad do something to help his son, hmmmmm?

let's all blame the mom, it's HER FAULT, HER FAULT, HER FAULT.

if "bio-dad" was not in the baby's life (which is a fault, granted) then, yes, the mother was responsible for the baby's health and welfare.

He may not even know she had a boyfriend. The mother knew, witnessed, and did little to stop her boyfriend from killing the child. It is her fault, not the fathers. But logic eludes you when you want to slur the father without any evidence.

This stupid woman is probably the reason the biological father is absent.

so that makes him MORE of a slimeball ... he not only impregnated a "stupid" woman, then he left the care of his biological child up to a "stupid" woman so he could be absent?

and you people question my logic?

if the bio father gave a shit about his child (unless he actually, really, does not even know he has one) he would not leave him in the care of someone stupid and irresponsible.

i am not saying the mother bears no responsibility, i just find it disgusting that everyone blames the mom and doesn't even question where the hell the real dad is ... and when i dare to question where is the bio dad/sperm donor, everyone jumps in MY shit.

people here need to learn to read for comprehension.

Mom was there- mom must protect...


I know if anybody tried to hurt a hair on my daughter's head when I wasn't around my wife would do everything in her power to protect her. Of course coming from you I would expect no different...

This story made me sob!

I would have died protecting my son. Why are people such monsters?
Please never let this man out in society again.

This guy should be publicly lashed until he dies.

#1: Flay this bastard alive, then hose him down with brine.

#2: Impale him. Slowly. He'll need to be alive and conscious for what's coming next.

#3: Douse him in gasoline and burn him alive.

May he rest in peace.

The death penalty is completely logical in cases like this.

These horrors almost always involve some young, stupid, mean, immature boyfriend who thinks he's going to beat the kid until they use the bath room like a proper adult.

Sickening.

Though this situation is far far worse and more extreme, it brought to mind an incident that occured when I was in the first grade at Catholic School, in the early 60s.

A boy in our class went up to the Sister and said "Sister, I have to go to the bathroom.'

She said that it wasn't time to go and that he must learn control and abstinence.

He then went to the back of the class to get a book as she had instructed, and the inevitable happened.

He wet his pants.

She then ran to the back of the classroom and began literally beating and berating him in front of all of us.

She didn't kill him thank heavens, but it was still cruel and abusive. I still get sick when I think about it myself.

From the article:

"The town police chief said Baker and her son had been brought to the attention of Genesee County Department of Child Services on several occasions."

Why does this always seem to be the case? Authorities know about problems, and yet the tragedies that follow are not averted.

first of all, it often is the case because people who commit this kind of serious abuse usually commit lesser offenses beforehand... however....

you only hear about the tragedies, NOT the tragedies that ARE averted because... wait for it... the tragedies that ARE averted are AVERTED, thus they never happen.

CPS can avert 100 tragedies, but you will not hear about those crimes (this isn't minority report) because they never happened.

you hear about the 1 that DOES happen.

this is similar to a selection bias type thang.

also, just because allegations are brought to the attention of CPS does not mean that in THOSE cases there was enough evidence to take substantial steps (such as take the child out of the home etc.

now, it very well may be that CPS dropped the ball. or it very well may be that they didn't.

but again, you are doing a classic logic fail in that you don't recognize that one can never know about incidents that were averted (unless they were literally in process at time of aversion).

i can arrest X dui drivers and avert Y tragedies, but since those tragedies never happened, you don't know they were averted

otoh, you DO hear about the tragedies that do happen

Your analysis of my statement implies that I think that no tragedies are averted, but that is not a logical conclusion from what I said.

I assume that, indeed, many tragedies are likely averted through timely intervention, through "earlier" events that fortunately do not lead to "later" events, because, as you say, they were averted.

And then there are the cases of tragedies where no prior trouble had been reported.

But it does seem like, in a decent percentage of these kinds of tragedies, prior incidents *had* been reported... which implies that is it likely that, to some extent, there was insufficient followup. That's my point.

(Your counter-argument that there are other cases where followup was likely sufficient and we just don't know is really not relevant to that point, a point which seems true regardless, and to which yours is essentially a non-sequitor.)

We seem to be an angry nation out of control.

:cry:

What the fuck is wrong with people?

This is one of them. This person deserves to be slowly tortured to death over a long period of time. As this is not going to happen they should just hang him and throw him in the trash for the rats to eat. This is the worst sort of scum.

I have no respect for women who place their childen in harms way like that. I have less respect for her boyfriend, but they both should face the electric chair so we can all watch them pee their pants.

Stupid mother, WTF is wrong with this woman?!?!?!!? Even ANIMALS fight fiercly to protect their babies. It's situations like this where the death penalty is warranted IMHO. That poor baby had no chance against these people, and was totally helpless.

OK, here goes: I hope Brandon gets drawn and quartered in the GP. I'm not going to describe "Drawn and Quartered". You'll have to look it up. You'll almost WANT the death penalty.

Fuck this.

What do you want me to do?

Play the good progressive? Pretend there's a redeemable cell in this coital mistake piece of dogshit? Think he can be rehabbed?

Or here's the one I love: "An eye for an eye makes everyone blind".

I'm sorry, I can't fucking do this anymore.

Reading story after story about small children getting beaten near or to death for no good reason whatsoever by meth-addicted shitbags, roid-rage mental patients, control-freaks . . . it just makes me fucking ILL. For example, there was a story a year ago about a guy pulling a 3-year old out of a car on the side of the road and just furiously beat him, body slamming, throwing him around like a rag-doll, punching, kicking . . . supposedly, he escaped restraint and just continued the beating. The beating was so violent and cruel that it took a cop to put a bullet in this fucker's head right then and there for it to stop. And of course, the little one died; massive head wounds and blunt trauma.

It just makes me believe that humanity isn't really worth saving or passing down to our children.

My stepson wondered why I just hugged him. He's the most precious thing on earth to me. If I lost him, it'd be the end of me. I'll always be with him and I'll never leave or harm him or make him not trust me.

So yeah, fuck Brandon and his rage, his issues, his problems. Toss him in the GP and let him get blasted. I don't fucking care anymore. The sooner people like Brandon are off of this Earth, the safer it will be.

I have a feeling though, that I'll be a waitin' sumbitch on this one.

Put this ape in a situation where he has to pick on someone his own size, and the equation will be completed. This shit makes me ill.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2010/04/court_documents_mother_of_domi.html

:cry:

what a little angel :cry:

I don't know what's worse-the physical wounds or the emotional wounds.A child starved for a gentle touch,a shred of affection,an acknowledgement of worth.Holding their hand or hugging them,you can feel the fear,melting into sheer joy at being loved.It doesn't happen overnight.May this animal receive the punishment he deserves.

A video I've found to be effective at expressing these emotions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esilqLRyZzM

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm08/chapter5.htm

Age and Sex of Perpetrators
For FFY 2008, 56.2 percent of the perpetrators were women, 42.6 percent were men and 1.1 percent were of unknown sex.2 Of the women who were perpetrators, more than 40 percent (45.3%) were younger than 30 years of age, compared with one-third of the men (35.2%) (figure 5–1). These proportions have remained consistent for the past few years.


Race and Ethnicity of Perpetrators
The racial distribution of perpetrators was similar to the race of their victims. During FFY 2008, nearly one-half (47.8%) of perpetrators were White and one-fifth (19.6%) were African-American. Approximately 20 percent (19.5%) of perpetrators were Hispanic.3 These proportions also have remained consistent for the past few years.


Perpetrator Relationship
Approximately 80 percent (80.1%) of perpetrators were parents.4 Other relatives accounted for an additional 6.5 percent. Unmarried partners of parents accounted for 4.4 percent (figure 5–2). Of the parents who were perpetrators, more than 90 percent (90.9%) were biological parents, 4.4 percent were stepparents, and 0.7 percent were adoptive parents.5


Types of Maltreatment
More than one-half (61.1%) of all perpetrators were found to have neglected children.6 More than 13 percent (13.4%) of all perpetrators were associated with more than one type of maltreatment. Approximately 10 percent (10.0%) of perpetrators physically abused children and 6.8 percent sexually abused children.

Perpetrators were analyzed by relationship to their victims and type of maltreatment. For this analysis, a perpetrator is counted once for each child for each report. Therefore, the pattern of perpetrators closely mirrors the pattern of maltreatment types. In other words, neglect represented both the most frequent form of maltreatment and the greatest number of perpetrators. Physical abuse ranked second, and so on.

Overall, 6.8 percent of all perpetrators were associated with sexually abusing a child. The percentage of perpetrators of sexual abuse was highest among friends or neighbors (58.3%), "other" (41.0%), other professionals (36.1%), other relatives (30.8%), and child daycare providers (21.2%).7

When I look at the picture of that poor child . . .

HOW CAN ANYONE DO THIS TO A SMALL CHILD??

HOW?? In whoever's name, HOW?? What did this accomplish?

It just makes me fucking SICK. Violently Ill. This rag trash shitpig FUCK . . .

I hope he gets bludgeoned within an inch of his life. I hope the entire GP finds out what he did and just fucking lay waste to this worthless bitch piece of shit. I really don't want this stain to survive the year.