Male babysitter allegedly beat 2-year-old boy to death because he 'threw a tantrum' while at unlicensed daycare
A male babysitter, hired from an unlicensed Wisconsin daycare, has been accused of brutally beating a two-year-old boy to death.
The babysitter, identified as 23-year-old Hunter Jones of Kenosha, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the death of two-year-old Matthew Bolinski.
Jones, on March 27 this year, called 911, telling the handler: "This child has some sort of mental issue. He throws tantrums. He threw a tantrum. He jumped out of the playpen and hit his head and stuff like that."
First responders said that, when they arrived at the scene, the child "appeared to have been deceased for approximately one hour prior to their arrival."
According to Jones's criminal complaint: "He was asked why he did not tell the 911 dispatcher that (the toddler) was dead, and he replied because he did not want to think that he was dead."
He reportedly talked to the 911 dispatcher for four minutes before revealing that the child was not breathing.
Although an autopsy conducted in the case listed the cause of the child's death as undetermined, it stated that the toddler likely died of asphyxia and had 18 contusions on his head.
The devastated mother of the toddler, Katherine Bolinski, while speaking to Fox 5, said that she is now living "an ongoing nightmare" after her son's death.
She added that after she visited her child at the coroner's office, she found his eyes had changed color.
"His eyes went from a deep blue to really, really light blue. Bruises all over his face. I lost it. I just couldn't hold it back," she said. "I still pretend like he's sleeping in the other room. Now it's just like an ongoing nightmare of waking up and there are moments where I just wish he could be with me still."
"I'm confused. I'm hurt. I'm angry," the mother said. "That was my life. My son was my life. My life didn't start until I had my son and now I feel like I don't even know what's going on. How this is even happening and how this is even my reality?"
Reports state that Bolinski, who is a single mother, had dropped her son off at the daycare home as she headed to work.
She left the two-year-old in the care of Jones and his wife Harmony, who was also looking after their two young children and two other youngsters simultaneously.
The couple had reportedly been caring for at least 12 children in the days leading up to Matthew's death.
"That day I dropped him off, he threw a fit like no other fit and I obviously regret having to do that now because of the outcome, but that's my last memory of him alive," the mother said.
Jones' wife, while speaking to authorities, said that she had left the child and others in her husband's care while she went out to pick dinner.