Autistic, nonverbal 6-year-old boy beaten by sex offender stepfather suffers skull fracture, bleeds to death
WAUKESHA, WISCONSIN: A 41-year-old father who is also a registered sex offender has reportedly beaten his six-year-old nonverbal stepson to death, according to the police.
The child, who had autism, was declared brain dead on July 20, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The man, identified as Carl Bookout, was arrested on Tuesday, July 30, and charged with the boy's death. The child has not been identified in the case.
According to a medical examiner, the boy suffered a severe skull fracture and brain bleeding, which could only have been caused by "extreme" force, like a stomp to the skull, a slam against a concrete wall or a car crash, according to a Fox 6 report. The criminal complaint stated that the boy's head injuries were so bad that his brain was forced to one side of the skull. The child also had a broken arm and bruising.
Bookout had reportedly told authorities on July 17 that the boy fell down six to eight carpeted steps at their apartment complex while his mother was at the store. The boy's parents, after the alleged fall, stated that he "had been unconscious for three hours before they got back home and brought him to the hospital" where doctors told them the boy "would die from his injuries".
The boy's mother, who has not been identified either, said that Bookout texted her after the alleged fall. However, she added that she "had been suspicious of Bookout possibly causing injury" to her son, according to reports. The mother said that when she got home from the store on July 17, Bookout had cleaned the apartment, something he does not do normally.
Doctors who performed the autopsy on the boy concluded: "It was most likely (the boy) became immediately unresponsive upon blunt force trauma to his head."
Bookout, days after giving three statements to police, asked to speak to a detective and told him that the child was on his shoulders when he fell down the steps. He added that he had a pre-existing neck injury and the boy was squirming, which caused him to lose his grip. "I dropped him," he told investigators.
Authorities, however, concluded that the child's injuries were "wholly inconsistent with an unintentional action on Bookout's part, given the velocity and force necessary to cause the injuries."
The 41-year-old was earlier convicted in March 2006 for sexual assault on a child, according to reports. Bookout is currently being held on a $500,000 bond and was eventually charged with homicide, child abuse, and failure to updates his sex offender information because he did not provide an updated address to the police.