Baby Dies After Mom Leaves Her Boyfriend to “Babysit”
“What’s the bruise on his head? Bruise on his fore—”
“Don’t touch me.”
“He told me that he wanted a… for his birthday.”
“You know how old she was?”
“15.”
“15. Do you believe Austin… your child at first?”
“I didn’t.”
“You told him three times to call 911. And he says, ‘I don’t call cops.’ He tells you he does not want to go back to prison while you’re there with your child.”
“He’s just choosing to be a damn… and cry about everything instead of picking himself up. So, I’m going to let him pass out.”
On August 15th, 2024, officers responded to a report of an unresponsive infant inside a residence. What initially appeared to be a medical emergency quickly raised concerns as statements from those inside the home began to reveal inconsistencies, along with noticeable marks that did not align with the explanation given.
“We literally woke up to Austin coming in and letting us know that he wasn’t breathing.”
“Which one’s Austin?”
“The guy outside here.”
“Who’s Austin? Does he live here, too? Or…”
“Yes, that’s her fiancé.”
“Is he the dad or just… he’s the boyfriend?”
“His new boyfriend. Okay. And so you live here? Just… Okay. And you’re Austin?”
“Austin.”
“And you’re the one that found the baby?”
“I mean, I was laying in bed with him and he was fine and just trying to do tummy time ’cause he was a little fussy due to an upset stomach. So, I’ve noticed the swaddle and tummy time tends to help, and I just put him on his tummy. The issue is, I think it was in one of these divots in here, this little circle piece. I don’t have a sheet currently. I think his nose ended up wiggling right into one of the flat spots. So, he didn’t have, you know… And to be honest, like I said, it was about 10–15 minutes of in-between of me checking on him. So…”
“And is this her baby as well?”
“Yes, this is Alexander.”
“And no, no, neither one of them are yours, right?”
“No, just stepdad. Just stepdad trying to be the best dad for him is all.”
“Hi baby. What’s that bruise on his head?”
“He’s a little rambunctious guy and loves jumping up and down on beds and will sprint back and forth in there.”
“How long… How long has he had that bruise?”
“I mean, a couple days.”
“Who else lives here?”
“My husband.”
“Okay. And you live here?”
“Yep.”
“They just told you to wait out here. Okay. Has anybody talked to you, an officer or anything? Get your name. What is your name?”
“Ashlin.”
“Ashlin. Okay. What’s your last name? Ashlin…”
“Leel.”
“Okay. Can you tell me about this morning?”
“I was at work.”
“Till what time?”
“Just now.”
“Okay. So, how did you get called?”
“Austin called me.”
“Okay. What did Austin say?”
“That he was unresponsive and he’s been trying to wake him up and it’s not working, and then I needed to come home.”
“Okay. And so, you came home and then what happened?”
“He was unresponsive. So, I started doing CPR and called you guys.”
“Okay. How long do you think you were doing CPR before you called? Do you know?”
“Seconds.”
“Okay.”
“Not too long.”
“Okay. Can you tell me what time you left for work this morning?”
“6:30.”
“And when you left for work this morning, where… what is your son’s name?”
“Andrew.”
“Andrew. Where was Andrew when you left for work this morning?”
“Asleep in his bed.”
“In his bed. Where is his bed?”
“Next to my bed.”
“Is that the playpen on the floor?”
“One of them. Yeah.”
“So, he was in that playpen when you left. Okay. And then your other boy is an…”
“Alexander.”
“And where was Alexander when you left?”
“Asleep in his bed.”
“Okay. Can we look on your phone and see what time Austin called you? See what time that he called you on your cell phone?”
“11:54.”
“11:54 he called you. Okay. How long was that phone call? Can you tell me?”
“53 seconds.”
“Okay. So, he says he was doing tummy time with him and he couldn’t wake him up. What were his words?”
“Andrew was doing tummy time in our room and he went in to change Bubba and noticed that he wasn’t responding. He wasn’t moving or talking. So, he tried to wake him up and it wasn’t working.”
“Wasn’t moving or talking. How old is he?”
“He’s almost 4 months.”
“So, then he tries to wake him up and he can’t. So, then what?”
“He called me.”
“Okay. And then…”
“I told my boss I needed to leave because my kid was unresponsive, and they told me to go.”
“Okay. Did anybody say we should call 911 or anything? Did that cross your mind at all?”
“Not at first.”
“Not at first. Okay. And then when you got home, where was he?”
“On our bed.”
“He was on the bed. Was he on his tummy or his back?”
“His back.”
“Okay. And then you said, what did you do at first?”
“I moved him to the floor, started CPR, and called you guys.”
“And you were actually the one that called 911. Okay. What about the other two people that live in the house?”
“They were sleeping.”
“Can you show us exactly, ’cause I know you’re trying to explain it earlier. Can you show us exactly where the baby was laying when you found him?”
“I’ll just hop up here because I was actually laying in bed with him for a little bit. I was right here, roughly, just on my phone laying out. He was about here to here, and his head was about here, and he just… he was chilling, just moving around, little things, you know. About a good 10–15 minutes in, I’m sitting there and he stands up and he’s kind of like, ‘I need a butt change.’ So I stood up, tried helping him out, and he just kept looking at brother like… So I got up and tried moving him and seeing if he was responsive, and he wasn’t.”
“All right. Is he on any medication for anything or…”
“I don’t believe so.”
“What’s the little boy’s name?”
“Andrew.”
“Andrew. Okay. So Andrew is not on any medication. I see the bottles there. That’s the bottle you were trying to feed him.”
“Yes. That’s… I mean, still decently warm, too. So…”
“Is it?”
“That’s why I said, I mean, no, it was no more than 5–10 minutes of him being unresponsive max, ’cause I literally just made him a bottle 10–15 minutes prior, tried feeding him, tried doing the normals, nothing. And I put him on his stomach and he was just like, ‘Ooh, pressure on my stomach, relief.’ So I just kind of let him be and he just did the normal shoulder movement, move head…”
“And he didn’t want any of the bottle?”
“I mean, he didn’t take any of it. I made a 4 oz bottle and it looks like it’s about still 4 oz, so he didn’t take but maybe a sip or two.”
“He never vomited or anything like that?”
“No, that’s why I checked his diaper as soon as I realized he was unresponsive to make sure he didn’t defecate or anything like that. Uh, it wasn’t wet to the touch or anything like that. So, his bowels didn’t just drain or nothing.”
“Is Jason biological dad?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t think he rolled over on him or anything?”
“To be honest with you, I just took a bus ride back, so I’m pretty exhausted. I took a two-day bus ride. I might have had my big leg roll over on him a little bit, but I’m not entirely sure. I don’t think I did. I didn’t feel any warmth or any skin-on-skin when I was half asleep, but I… I don’t know.”
“There’s a lot of potential.”
“Yeah, absolutely.”
“The other child is on his forehead, too.”
“Where did the blood come from? What’s that all about?”
“Where do you see it?”
“There’s blood here. There’s blood underneath here.”
“Actually, this poking or something… sort of tension or something.”
“Had Austin called you at any time between 6:30 and 11:00 when you left, and 11:54 when he called you?”
“No, but we were texting on and off.”
“Okay. Anything in those texts that mention anything about the kids at all?”
“A lot. That Bubba had a granola bar for breakfast. Andrew ate a bottle and was fussy still yesterday. Was fussy.”
“Andrew was fussy yesterday. Is that unusual?”
“Kind of.”
“Do you have kids?”
“I do. I have a grandson, too.”
“That sound they make when they got a burp.”
“Okay.”
“He was constantly making that sound, even trying to burp him this way, that way, that way, this way.”
“Okay.”
“I got a lot of burps out of him last night, so I figured, okay, he just had a lot of burps in there, and that’s when he was fussy.”
“Okay. So, okay. I know I’m kind of jumping all over the place. Were you already living there or did he move in with you?”
“Uh, we moved in there to live together.”
“Okay. Do you remember about when you moved in?”
“3 days ago.”
“Oh, you all four moved in there three days ago. Okay. Earlier you said that you guys have been living together for a couple months. Where were you living before that?”
“Before that, we were living with his mom.”
“Okay, give me one second. Okay, I’ll be right back, babe.”
“So, when we stop, I think we’re going to stop. Do you want mom and dad to come in right away? Do we want to wait? What do you guys want? ‘Cause I’m sure this is evidentiary now with everything. So, what do you guys want?”
“Really like to get some pictures before mom and dad come in. Don’t touch me.”
“Okay. I was going to see if you needed somebody. You don’t need anybody.”
“My sister’s all the way…”
“Okay. What’s your sister’s name?”
“Cassie.”
“Okay. I know it’s hard, but I lost a baby, too, so I know what you’re going through. We can just right here… Um, when’s the last time you saw Andrew?”
“Uh, I watched him Saturday.”
“Saturday the 10th is the last time you saw him. Okay. All right. I’m going to go do what I need to do so that you guys can hold him. Okay. All right. You can go back in there wherever you want to go. Okay. I’m going to go take the pictures and get that done.”
“I’ll be right back. And I’m working my fastest so you can get in there and hold your son. Okay.”
Identifying Austin, the mother’s boyfriend, as the last person with the infant before he was found unresponsive. He claimed the baby had been placed on his stomach and suggested a possible accidental suffocation. The mother confirmed she had been at work for several hours, leaving Austin alone with the children. Despite being told the infant was unresponsive, there was a delay in contacting emergency services. Austin’s account added further uncertainty when he admitted he may have rolled onto the child while sleeping, though he wasn’t certain.
“Austin, right?”
“Yeah.”
“All right. Come over here for a second. All right. What’s up?”
“There’s a lot of concern right now because Andrew, right? Yes. The baby… there’s a lot of bruising on that baby.”
“I’ll be honest… a lot of bruising.”
“I’ve told the other officer. So, I panicked when he stopped, wasn’t responsive… these aren’t taps. I didn’t do anything else besides tap and the C-clamp I did yesterday. He got a lot of hair from on him, stuck to him just being sweaty. So, I did C-clamp underneath. Uh, as for the cutting right there, it wasn’t a cut. It was from my nails. I recently cut him because of that. I would, uh, he’d put his pacifier in, would have it there and wouldn’t take. So, I’d lift his jaw and I used to just do it with a thumbnail, not thinking. Other than that, the bruising on his forehead is from a couple days ago from his brother spiking a cup on him. I mean, I wasn’t even here for that. I was out of state, actually. I don’t know that there’d be any other thing besides another scratch on his stomach from my thumbnail or pinky nail or something.”
“Okay. Well, I appreciate that. So, we’re going to go figure out, I guess, where we go from here, ’cause I gotta be honest with you, we’re thinking that somebody may have caused this, right?”
“And can I at least see Ashlin here soon to comfort her, more or less?”
“Uh, she’s not here.”
“I know, but she’s at the hospital, which is where we were routed to until we were called over here.”
“Yeah, we’ll see if we can facilitate that.”
“Yep.”
“Do you want me to sit in here? I’ll wait.”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. I’ll put on the air conditioner so you can get more air. So, I’m assuming we’re going to wait until the autopsy until if we make… if we should make any arrests or anything, the autopsy is going to probably determine that. Correct, Murf?”
“Yeah.”
Officers on scene began documenting multiple bruises on the infant. Visible bruises that did not appear consistent with a single incident. When questioned, Austin attempted to explain each mark individually, attributing them to accidents or his own handling of the child.
“Obviously, mom and dad haven’t been in here. Okay. Bio dad is Jason Richards. He’s here. Okay. So, let’s start with that. Jason said the last time he saw the baby was August 10th. He babysat him or he had him. He took a picture of him that day. He showed me that picture. Baby, no face. Between that date and today, both mom and Austin have sent him pictures on Snapchat of the baby. He showed me those pictures. I was able to look at them. I didn’t see any bruises. He saved them so we can look at them. He’s more than fine showing us anything we need to see. I was told that the roommate said that the older boy has had the bruise on his head for a while. I went in to ask mom about the baby being seen. And I said, ‘Oh, how long has he had that bruise on his head?’ And she said, ‘He got it yesterday and he fell down at home.’ Obviously, mom and dad haven’t been in here yet. So, we kind of want to do some things and get some information before they come in and see him, but whenever you’re ready for that.”
“But is that what he looked like when you left for work? Basically, he looked like that yesterday.”
“I assume Saturday was fine.”
“You didn’t have any of these bruises on Saturday.”
“I mean, that’s a lot of bruises for a short time frame.”
“Any chance you took any pictures on Snapchat recently?”
“No.”
“Okay. Take pictures of myself.”
“Okay.”
“I haven’t sent any photos to your family that you were staying with. I’m not sure who that is or whoever you’ve been there… How many?”
“So, you said you were staying with people at 12 in Washington roughly. I just… Whoever those people are, I don’t know if they’re parents or who. I just didn’t know if you sent pictures to anybody, like texted them a photo or anything like that.”
“We’re just trying to build a timeline here as far as when these bruises showed up.”
“I want to talk to you mom to mom, okay? I know it sucks that you have all these cops asking you questions. I… believe me, I get it. But we want to do what’s best for your son. Okay? We want to figure out what happened, why it happened, and how it happened. And to do that, we have to ask you these questions, sweetie.”
“If you look at the situation, we have Austin was the person taking care of… remember that time we probably can’t have Austin around Alexander for a while until we know what happened. Does that make sense?”
“Mhm.”
“So I did get a hold of the funeral home. So they’re going to come get him. Okay. And then they’ll go to… and then I gave them mom’s phone number. So they’ll be contacting you then. Okay.”
“As far as the proper interview goes, there’s obviously some things that, you know, we’d like to get accomplished. There’s some things that you’d like to get accomplished. Okay. We’re both kind of going back and forth, uh, asking questions, you know, and obviously we have some stuff printed off and want to make sure that we have all the facts correct on our end. You know, that’s the only reason why we have it. Okay. So, basically, you know, the charges that we want to cover are obviously, um, the child… um, resulting… and then uh, um, okay, those are the two things that I’m, you know, the only road I’m going to go down. Okay.”
“Had you ever dated Austin?”
“Not up until now.”
“Not up until now. Okay. Did you know Austin is that type… dealer? I guess to be blunt. No.”
“No.”
“Did you ever purchase any or anything from him?”
“No.”
“Okay. I’m not saying that you were a user or anything like that. I’m just, you know, trying to go out, you know, go down the relationship to be blunt. Would you consider Austin manipulative?”
“At times. Yeah.”
“At times. How long were you dating before you decided to move in with each other?”
“A couple months.”
“Two months. And during that time, everybody good and trained on how to take care of Andrew along with Alexander? Any outside help with the children?”
“Okay. Babysitters.”
“How many different babysitters, you think?”
“Two.”
“Two. And who were the babysitters?”
“Harley and Dixie.”
“How would you get a hold of them?”
“Text them.”
“Why do you think that, uh, you know, you needed a babysitter with Austin?”
“Because Austin was worried with how small Andrew was. He was scared he was going to hurt him.”
“Why?”
“Cuz he’s so big.”
“Cuz he’s big. Would he holding him like laying there? I guess…”
“He’d hold him, but he’d be really stiff and…”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, take him.”
“Yeah. Okay. And were you like, ‘Okay, I understand that you’re big. I’m afraid of you holding my child, too.’ Is that, or were you like what?”
“I get it.”
“So when you would go and it would just be Austin, would you call Harley and Dixie?”
“I’d pass each of them.”
“And so one of them usually…”
“Mhm.”
“Pretty good about coming over.”
“Who was more good about coming over? Was it Harley or Dixie, or Dixie? Who was more reliable?”
“Dixie.”
“Dixie was way more reliable. Okay. Some tough questions. Dixie come over. How old’s Dixie?”
“15.”
“15. 16 now.”
“16. Okay. So, she would… they get dropped off?”
“Okay.”
“Who would drop them off?”
“Uh, generally for Dixie, it’d be Tyler.”
“Okay. And who’s that?”
“Her mom’s boyfriend.”
“What about um, Harley?”
“Her mom.”
“Her mom. Would Austin ever message Dixie or Harley about coming over to babysit?”
“If I was busy.”
“If you were busy. Okay. Were you okay with that? With him talking to them.”
“So Harley would come over, correct? And obviously, you know, as far as some of the allegations go, at what point would the relationship with Harley start developing? What triggered like, hey, there’s something going on here.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you noticed there could be some type of relationship between Austin and her.”
“I’m just sitting too close.”
“Did it bother you? Cuz you were cheated on once before, correct? And so did you notice some flirting?”
“Not directly.”
“Not directly. What about… Did you see any messages?”
“I’ve seen notifications from Harley on his phone.”
“A lot of notifications. Yeah. So, at what point in time did you know that there was a relationship between Harley and Austin?”
“Not for sure on an exact date.”
“Do you remember when it was like ‘bing’? What triggered it?”
“A message.”
“What did the message say?”
“I don’t remember exactly, but it was in nature.”
“Or was it a picture? And did you see his messages too?”
“Okay. Can I ask you a hard question? You left one boyfriend right when you knew that he was cheating on you. Why wouldn’t you have left Austin at that point in time?”
“Cuz he treated me and the boys really good.”
“Did you guys get in an argument?”
“Mhm. But you’re okay with it?”
“He said he’d stop.”
“When did you find out that he didn’t stop?”
“A couple weeks later.”
“Did you see another message or maybe a picture? Was it on Snapchat or was it a text?”
“Snapchat.”
“Snapchat. So, you were okay… I’m going to put this bluntly. You were okay with him cheating on you because he treated the boys okay. Am I correct?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. So when you were in the argument, would he get upset that you were mad?”
“No.”
“Did you find that odd?”
“I know.”
“Would you consider him controlling?”
“A little bit.”
“Was there anybody else he was talking to?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Had you seen these? Do you know what those are? As far as showing you those, I’m not looking for a reaction. It just shows to me what he thought of you versus anybody else. How old was Harley?”
“15.”
“15. You know, the mindset of Austin to be able to share a picture with… I’m assuming you guys loved each other, correct? You say you loved each other. Do you believe he loved you? I’m asking. Not just based on that.”
“I thought he did.”
“Does that show somebody maybe a little different than what you thought? And I’m not looking for you to go down that road. I’m asking because I want to know your logic. I want to know honestly, to put it bluntly. I want to know your common sense. You know how you feel, how you see it. Do you see it the same as I do? Do you see it the same as, you know, investigator party? How did it get sold to you that this was okay and that you should join it?”
“Austin said… so he said, I guess in trying to put it, you know, I believe you. Okay. So, I’m trying to put it in how I perceive it. So, he’s like, ‘Hey, this is what I need. I have to have this.’ And if you don’t, how… tell me how that conversation went.”
“He basically told me that he’s not a monogamous person and if he doesn’t get poly, then he’s going to kill himself.”
“So, did… after that conversation, but you didn’t know all this was happening in the background, correct? Did he tell you that we’re not going to do this anymore without you or how did that go down?”
“They want to do it behind.”
“Were you okay with them doing it in front of you?”
“Not really.”
“Did you ever have a threesome with them?”
“Okay. How many times?”
“Once.”
“Once. Okay. Tell me how that got planned out. Austin, what did he say?”
“He wanted it for his birthday.”
“How did that conversation go?”
“He told me that he wanted a threesome for his birthday.”
“So, you were okay with watching him have… with another girl. Am I correct?”
“Having with me and another girl?”
“And another girl. And so, at some point in time, you’re like, ‘Okay, yeah, I’m okay with this.’ And so, was there a plan for that night? What was the plan?”
“For her to come over.”
“Um, do you know how old she was?”
“15.”
“15. Okay. Did that bother you at all?”
“Okay. Did you know that it was probably illegal? Okay. And so that didn’t stop you. And why?”
“Austin wanted it.”
“Austin wanted it. Okay. Did he tell you his fantasy of what he wanted done, of how he wanted it done before she came over and you were okay with that?”
“Why… he wanted his part.”
“Okay. Would you classify it as you were okay with it or would you say that it was something you had to do to keep him? Because that’s the feeling I’ve got from talking to you. It wasn’t something you wanted to do because it was something that Austin wanted. Did he threaten himself a lot? Do you ever know of any attempts?”
“What attempt?”
“Uh, he tried to strangle himself and OD.”
“OD on what?”
“His meds.”
“His meds. What kind of meds was he on?”
“Uh, I don’t remember all of them, but he was on lithium.”
“Lithium. Okay.”
“A couple others.”
“Did he tie a noose?”
“Used a belt.”
“Used a belt. Did you catch him?”
“I stopped him both.”
“You stopped him both times. Do you believe if you wouldn’t have stopped him, he wouldn’t have stopped himself? Okay. So, she comes over. Did you have anything to drink? Loosen you up? Did you have some Delta maybe to make things a little bit better, easier? What about him?”
“I think so. Yeah.”
“Delta. Any alcohol?”
“Maybe. I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember? Okay. Did he guide it?”
“Okay. Did you guys start out in the living room or was it straight to the bedroom?”
“We got in the living room for a little bit.”
“And did what? He’s like, ‘Hey, start kissing. You know, I want to watch you, too.'”
“He just started kissing me.”
“He started kissing you. Okay.”
“He stopped and started kissing her.”
“At some point in time. Are you watching this and are okay with it?”
“And then I was watching.”
“Okay. And what was your mindset? Did it bother you for him? I portray myself sitting there watching my wife kiss somebody else and I have like my heart sinks. Correct. Did you have any of that feeling? Did it… So it bothered me with the type of person I know what I believe that you are, I think it would bother you. So were you still out in the living room? Okay. At any point in time did clothes come off?”
“We went upstairs first.”
“You went upstairs first. Okay. And the babies?”
“Were downstairs chilling. They were okay. Okay. One was in his high chair.”
“So, the three of you go upstairs to whose bedroom was it? Christina’s or Austin’s?”
“Austin’s. He still had a bedroom there. Okay.”
“Just go ahead and guide me down how it all went down.”
“Austin and I started kissing, taking each other’s clothes off. He started kissing Harley. Taking her clothes off.”
“At any point in time, were you kissing Harley?”
“I think.”
“Okay. Were you guys kissing each other? All three at the same time, like back and forth. Okay. Was he fondling you? Okay. Were you at some point in time, I’m assuming all of you were? Okay. Did you see… watching him fondle Harley? Was he touching her? Okay. Did you see that?”
“Not that I saw.”
“Not that you saw. Um, did you ever put on her?”
“You put on her? Okay. So, as far as foreplay goes, um, was there… on Austin?”
“On Austin by you and Harley.”
“And Harley. Okay. So, she gave him… Okay. And were you guys going back and forth together? Okay. At some point in time, does he start having with her first or you?”
“Her.”
“Her. Where were you at while they were having… on his face?”
“On his face. Okay. So she was on top of him and then you were sitting on his face and he was giving you… Okay. Did Harley look like she was enjoying herself? Okay. She enjoyed it. Did Austin… Okay. Where did he… in Harley?”
“And Harley. Okay. So that kind of ended it and that was while he was on top of her… or I’m sorry, she was on top of him. Okay. And at this point in time, you’re sitting on his face, right? Was it over then? Was there conversation after?”
“I don’t know. I got up in that dress because Andrew was fussing.”
“Andrew started fussing. So, at any point in time, was he fussing during the middle of it? Could you hear him?”
“Okay. You noticed it at the end. Okay. And uh what about Alexander?”
“He was chill.”
“Okay. So, you get dressed and you go downstairs. Awkwardness. Was there any awkwardness afterwards with you? Was Austin okay with it?”
“Seemed like they were okay with it.”
“Harley talk about it like, ‘Hey, that was great’?”
“She said it was good.”
“Said it was good. Okay. Did you feel used by Austin? Did you ever talk to him about that?”
“No.”
“No. Why not?”
“If you want to see some of these, I can show them to you. But he goes on to talk about how he’s going to leave you. They’re talking about her possibly being pregnant. He says, ‘Here, I’m cheating to talk to you, and if she’s not pregnant, they’re going to try again.’ The messages that she saw, you were basically led up to the point where Austin had gotten a hold of you about something that had happened. Did he phone call? Did he snap you? Did he…”
“All of the above.”
“All of the above. So…”
“He tried calling me, he snapped me, he texted me. Um, basically told me I needed to answer, and so I answered and he told me that Andrew wasn’t responding. He wasn’t waking up and it didn’t seem like he was breathing.”
“Okay. And this was during a phone conversation and I’m not privy to a lot of this. Was this a Snapchat call? Was it a Facebook call or just a call from phone to phone?”
“Phone.”
“Phone to phone. Okay. So he says, ‘Hey, something’s going on. Andrew’s…’ Did he tell you he’s not breathing?”
“Not responding.”
“Not responding. Okay. Um, did he tell you that he just walked in and saw this? Was he laying beside him?”
“He just woke up.”
“Austin had woken up. Okay. And did he check on Andrew? Did he make any sort of statement like, ‘Hey, I don’t know what happened,’ or did he say how it could have happened? How Andrew is not being responsive at that point in time.”
“He said, ‘I don’t know what happened. I just woke up.'”
“Okay. How did you reply?”
“I said, ‘Calm down. Call 911. Let me talk to my boss ’cause I’ll be on my way in a minute.'”
“So, you told him to call 911.”
“Right away.”
“Okay. And what did he say?”
“Hurry up.”
“Hurry up. Did he say, ‘I’m calling 911’?”
“No.”
“Did he say, ‘I’m not calling 911’? I don’t remember if you did or did that. Okay. So, you talked to your bosses. Was it like a short brief like ‘I’m on my way’? Was it a short conversation with him? You called or he answered. Did you end up answering his call or calling him back?”
“I don’t remember which one.”
“And he said, ‘Andrew is not responding. I just woke up.’ And you say, ‘I’m going to talk to my bosses. Call 911. I’m on my way home.’ Do you hang up then? He doesn’t say, ‘Okay, I’m getting off the phone to call 911.’ Or he doesn’t say anything about 911. Okay. Did you think about calling 911? Were you like, ‘Boy, he’s not going to call 911.'”
“I kind of assumed he would call. So, I was… I was speeding.”
“You were speeding? Yeah, of course. Right. How many times do you think you told him to call 911?”
“Two or three.”
“Two or three. And so, from the first conversation, call 911. And he says, ‘Hurry and get here. Hang up.’ You call him. He’s on speaker phone and he still tells you. Does he still say, ‘Hey, he’s unresponsive. He’s not…’ And you say, ‘Call 911.’ Okay. He still doesn’t. Do you hang up?”
“Yeah, I hung up so I could drive.”
“So you could drive. Okay. And did you… But you’re assuming that he was supposed to call 911 or that he was calling 911. Okay. So you hang up with him. You get to the house. Come running inside. Where’s Andrew?”
“On my bed.”
“On your bed. Did you ask Austin, ‘Did you call 911?’ Has anybody called 911? What does Austin say?”
“No.”
“So, what’s Austin saying?”
“He’s answering my questions that the 911 person asked. I didn’t know.”
“And this time you get there, you perform CPR. Austin doesn’t call 911. You confronted him about that?”
“After everything happened.”
“After everything happened and he just says, ‘My focus was on calling you.’ Did you ever think that was right? Did you ever think, ‘No, there’s more to this.’ I mean, I understand the thought process of calling the mom, but the mom is telling you to call 911, so why didn’t you? Did you ever confront him about that? And what does he say?”
“I don’t call 911.”
“And what did you think about that?”
“That was…”
“Was there any talk about what had happened between you and Austin?”
“I mean, he apologized.”
“What did he apologize for?”
“Just the fact that he was gone.”
“He didn’t apologize for anything else. Do you believe Austin… your child?”
“At first I didn’t.”
“Okay. And at first as in the first day, the first week, first months…”
“The first months.”
“Do you remember the conversation you guys had that morning? Okay. He told you he just woke up. But according to Snapchat, he has been Snapchatting people for the last hour before you got home. So that tells us he’s not sleeping. So he says, ‘I’m just leaving. I’m not qualified to take care of kids. And to be honest, I feel like it’s the only reason you have me around is to use me as a babysitter for the kids that aren’t even mine. I love them. My heart hurts, but hurts even more with them not actually being mine.’ And you said, ‘That’s not why I have you around.’ And he responds and says, ‘I feel like it is when all I seem to do is take care of the boys and get… so okay babe. Babysitter and your babysitter.’ And you said, ‘That’s not why.’ He says, ‘So the money or you want my kid next or on to the next baby daddy? Me and Bubba are… you when you’re off?’ and he says, ‘I love you, Ash. And our son, me and our son are doing that today.'”
“So that still kind of confuses me about the message shortly before this about Bubba and him… you when you’re off, because I know you guys refer to Alexander as Bubba. And then he responds again four minutes later, ‘I love you, Ash, and me and our son are doing that today.’ Does that message make any sense? So that message has bothered me since the first time I’ve ever seen these. He’s frustrated. He tells you that he’s frustrated. He wants you to take the kids with you to work the next day because he’s not qualified to watch him. Okay. And the same time he’s messaging Harley. Okay. Do you see what Bean looks like in that picture? Do you see any bruising on him? Do you remember when this picture was taken?”
“I don’t remember. They took it.”
“You took it? Did Bean look like that on the 15th when you left for work? He had some bruises on the side of his face. And where did that bruising come from?”
“Austin.”
“So you say there was bruising on the head from Austin. What happened?”
“Austin said that there was a hair down his throat, so he had to hold his head to get it out.”
“There was a hair down his throat, so he had to hold his head to get it out. Did you believe him?”
“Yeah, ’cause his swaddle, this wrap thing is fleece and it traps a lot of hair.”
“So he held him hard enough to get a hair from his throat. Was he hard to hold? Has there been any conversations with Austin other than him apologizing for him being gone that would lead you to believe that he may have hurt him?”
“No.”
“Not one. Any conversations with anybody else that you know he had?”
“Okay.”
“Did you see Bean in the hospital that day? Did he look like that when you left that morning for work? So, does that tell you that something happened in that time frame? Do you want to know how Austin has been talking to Harley after the baby passed away? Do you want to see them or just you want me to tell you? Tell me. Great. He’s annoyed about how much you’re crying. Feels like he has to walk on eggshells. And so that also goes alongside of what we have read through these messages and seen as somebody… If I’m with somebody in a relationship and I lose my child, I’m going to tell you right there, if you have no support there for me, then he never cared about that baby in the first place. There’s no way you can move on that quick from losing a child and not be crying.”
“You told him three times to call 911 and he says, ‘I don’t call cops.’ He tells you he does not want to go back to prison while you’re there with your child. You didn’t know any of what was going on in the background, and we know that. Do you know about his cell phone that he had Brady get rid of? What do you know about it?”
“That Austin asked Brady to get rid of it so he can get a little bit of money on our books.”
“Did he tell you this or did he tell you this through Christina?”
“Through Brady.”
“Through Brady. The day that you guys were arrested, there was also a search warrant served for Austin’s cell phone. Did Austin produce…”
“I was at work.”
“Okay. So, I don’t know. Were those there before you left that morning?”
“Couple of them.”
“All of them. What… were there when you left?”
“He had a bruise around his mouth from Alexander and then on his side.”
“Okay. What weren’t there? Uh, the officer pointed out some bruises on his legs.”
“On his legs. Okay.”
“So, these are your guys’ text messages from that day. At 7:10 in the morning: ‘Bean’s pissing me off, but I’m about to get up and leave. I told… I’m not watching him specifically anymore. They don’t like waking up to help.’ I’m assuming he’s talking about Shy and Brady. And you said to put them in their bed if he needs to. ‘No, I’m just going to make him do a tummy time now. Don’t want to shut up. I’ll just make him lay on his stomach and have less oxygen either. You’re going to pass the… out and I’m going to roll you on your back. You’re going to lift it, Laya, and figure it out.’ Do you remember those messages?”
“7:12. Right after that, you say, ‘Okay.’ And then he says, ‘Woke up to May again. Took him out to cuddle just for him to scream, but now that he’s on his stomach, he’s just barely wiggling his head. I still see him breathing, so I’m not too concerned, but he’s not yelling anymore.’ So, I mean, this is at 7:13 in the morning. It’s pretty early in that day. And you said, ‘I was hoping I got all the burps out last night. He had a lot. I’m glad he’s quiet.’ And he said, ‘I mean, asleep or quiet ’cause he’s on his stomach. Like I said, I’m pretty sure he passed out due to the fact that he wants to keep yelling at me like a… and I have his arms halfway out of his thing. So, I mean, he can pick himself up. He’s just choosing to be a… and cry about everything instead of picking himself up. So, I’m going to let him pass out more or less and then rolling him over and see if he’s still alive and awake, and he cries at me again. So, I just put him back on his belly and he’s content and he just keeps sobbing into the bed.'”
“That’s at 7:18 in the morning. Would you consider him being frustrated with the baby at that point? I know he had certain nicknames for the kids. Was… a normal nickname for… frustrated. He was frustrated. Okay. Because I know he calls Alexander… Okay, that comes from my sister. Okay. Well, personally, I’m going to tell you that’s not an appropriate thing to call a 2-year-old. You know, it’s not going to make anybody look good.”
“You said he’ll be fine. Stay on his tummy. You don’t have to roll him over. That seems to be the only thing to help. And he says, ‘I just don’t want him more hurt. I may have just seen Bubba’s… in the air, so I may have smacked it and hurried up and hopped in bed. He just woke up so confused. I’m gonna…’ Can I be honest with you about something? That day, I was still a school resource officer and my boss asked me if I could bring a phone up or a camera up to the hospital, and I didn’t know why I was going up to the hospital. Okay, I’m a mom. Still didn’t quite know. Talked to the officer that was on scene. Asked if she needs help with anything and she walks me into the room and I see your son laying there. That is not an easy thing to see. Nine years working down here. That is my first baby that I have seen deceased. I don’t want to reshow you, but I think you need to see. And I also want you to show us what bruising that you remember being there as opposed to the hospital when you left for work that day. Did his face look like that before you left for work?”
“No.”
“But what you can’t see in this picture is he also has scratching underneath his chin. He has bruising back here. There’s bruising on his limbs. I’ve had children. They’ve been two months old or four months old before. They don’t move around enough to get self-sustained bruises on limbs and stuff like that. You know, we hear it constantly. ‘The cops are just out to get me. Cops are just out to get me.’ We just try to get to the truth and how we see it and how I believe how you can see it today. Do you want to take her? I’ll have a cigarette and we’ll probably… I think we’re pretty close to being finished tonight. We’ll go from there. Is that cool?”
As the investigation progressed, authorities identified Austin Maine as the primary suspect, with his girlfriend Cheyenne Zitell, the child’s mother, also implicated. Maine was charged with the following. Zitell was charged with the following. Both were also accused of SA while in custody on the CA…
