A 2-year-old boy named Aleister was allegedly beaten to death by 36-year-old Jonathan Dunn at a home in Roy, Utah. Cops were called Dec. 21, 2023, and found Aleister unresponsive. Paramedics took him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. (GoFundMe)
A Utah man is facing murder and child sexual abuse charges after he allegedly beat 2-year-old boy to death and severely injured the boy’s twin sister, according to authorities.
Police in city of Roy, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, responded after 36-year-old Jonathan Dunn called on Thursday to say a 2-year-old boy he was babysitting was unconscious and not breathing. Officers arrived to find the boy lying on the porch with “several visible injuries to his face and body,” a probable cause arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime states. Officers went inside and saw a 2-year-old girl sitting on a couch with several bruises to her face.
Paramedics took the two children to a hospital where doctors pronounced the boy dead and listed the girl in critical condition.
Dunn agreed to talk to detectives and told them that at around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, he began to “play a game” with the boy and girl where he punched them “repeatedly in the back, sides and chest,” the affidavit said.
“Jonathan stated that he was hitting them harder than he should have,” investigators wrote.
Dunn also allegedly hit the children with the butt of a nerf gun, pinched them throughout the body and pushed them into a closet door frame “causing their body to go limp.” He told detectives when he woke up in the morning, the boy started wheezing so he gave him cough medicine, documents stated. About an hour later, the boy stopped breathing so he called 911, he allegedly said.
“He admitted that he lost control and his anger got the best of him and he caused these injuries to small children,” detectives wrote.
The affidavit does not describe the relationship between him and the children beyond calling him a babysitter.
A GoFundMe page identified the boy as Aleister and said he died “at the hands of a complete monster.”
Cops arrested him on aggravated murder, aggravated child abuse, and two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child. He’s at the Weber County Jail without bond. He could receive the death penalty if convicted, according to police.
Detectives also wrote that Dunn has a previous child abuse conviction where he broke another 2-year-old’s arm and caused bruising to his face. The Associated Press reported Dunn was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison for the 2016 incident. He was released from prison in April 2019 and served out his parole by December 2021, the AP said.
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