Inset: Adrian Horton (Platte County). Background: The Platte County Government Complex where Adrian Horton has been charged for his son’s death (KCTV).
A Missouri man is facing charges in connection with the “violent” death of his infant son, who he allegedly killed during a “fussy” crying spat, police say.
Adrian Horton, 21, of Parkville, is charged with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child with the death of child after investigators with the Kansas City Police Department in Missouri determined that his son, Mateo Rideout, suffered fatal injuries in October 2024 “caused by violent trauma to the head, including acceleration and deceleration forces, which may or may not include shaking,” according to a probable cause statement filed last Friday, Aug. 1, in Platte County.
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But that’s not all: Horton also allegedly sexually assaulted an ex-lover outside of a mall less than a year before his son’s death.
Horton was taken into custody Monday — roughly eight months after his arrest for the alleged rape — following numerous attempts in police interviews to explain what happened to Mateo, the probable cause statement says.
“Over the course of several hours, Adrian’s account of what occurred with [the child] changed several times,” police allege, noting how Horton initially claimed he was “patting” Mateo in a “pretty aggressive manner” due to him crying.
“At one point, Adrian advised after he changed [the child’s] diaper, [Mateo] started to choke,” the probable cause statement says.
Horton allegedly claimed he started performing CPR “the adult way” on the child before calling Mateo’s mother into the room for help. “I might have used a little more force than I should have,” he allegedly admitted to police.
The mother told investigators that Horton was “always frustrated or annoyed” whenever he had to do anything with their son and that she had asked him to change the boy’s diaper on the night of his death after he started crying.
“As Adrian got up, she heard him say in a frustrated tone, ‘Why you always crying bro?’ talking about [Mateo],” the probable cause statement says, alleging that Mateo’s mother heard “loud patting” coming from the child’s room moments later.
“When the patting noise ceased, she heard Adrian yell her name and for her to come to [Mateo’s] room,” police recount.
The mother allegedly said she saw Horton holding Mateo “with a panicked look on his face” while the boy was “gasping for air.” She told authorities that Horton had not been abusive toward their son before, but he had become “increasingly more violent” recently, according to the probable cause statement.
Horton told cops that he and the child’s mother “were having sex” the night he died when the infant “became fussy in his bassinet next to the bed,” the statement says. He allegedly claimed Mateo’s “onesie” kept getting caught on his head as he was trying to remove it, which caused the child’s head to “jerk in a backward motion,” police say.
As he was changing Mateo’s diaper, Horton said he removed his diaper and the baby began to “pee on him,” per the probable cause statement. Horton allegedly told police he began to play with Mateo’s arms in an “orchestra conductor” motion while waiting for him to finish.
“He did not believe he was being too rough,” the probable cause statement says, alleging that Mateo “spit up” moments later, which prompted Horton to grab him “by his neck” and pat him on the back, according to police.
“When he didn’t get the result he wanted, Adrian advised he began to pat [the child] on the back in a pretty aggressive manner until spit up came out of his mouth,” the probable cause statement says. “Adrian then observed [the child] to be gasping for air and yelled for [the mother] to come into the room.”
For the rape case, authorities say Horton sexually assaulted an ex-lover in December 2023 at the Zona Rosa shopping mall in Kansas City. He is accused of choking and attacking the victim while they were in a parked car after she told him to stop multiple times, according to the probable cause statement related to that incident.
Horton was allegedly tied to the rape through DNA testing and a sexual assault examination kit performed on the victim. He was behind bars Tuesday on a $150,000 bond for the rape charge and on no bond related to his son’s death.
