A cruel stepfather in Arkansas has been charged with infanticide after allegedly throwing his 2-year-old stepson repeatedly into a swimming pool to teach him to swim.
Dakota Sean Hayes, 20, and his wife Anastasia Atkins, 24, were arrested Monday in connection with the child's death due to lack of oxygen to the brain.
The two men, both from Van Buren, are charged with first-degree murder, according to arrest warrants. what people got.
Hayes is charged with endangering the welfare of a child, and Atkins is charged with permitting abuse of a minor, according to Crawford County Sheriff's Office online jail records.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed on Jan. 2, the boy became unresponsive after swimming in his aunt's pool on June 17, 2024, three days after Atkins and Hayes called 911. The same media reported that he died on the same day.
When officers arrived at the family home on June 14, Atkins said the boy's body was frozen and his “eyes wouldn't move,” according to the affidavit.
She said his heart and breathing stopped and when she began pushing on his chest, he choked on water, documents state.
Hayes told officers she was teaching the boy to swim along with another 4-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl, according to the affidavit.
“The three children clung to his chest, and he grabbed them by the nose and sank to the bottom with them, sat there, and floated back to the surface,” Hayes told deputies, according to the affidavit. “It was,” he said.
But the 4-year-old boy told detectives that Hayes threw him into the pool, causing him to nearly drown, the affidavit said.
He added that Hayes and Atkins would inflict physical punishment on him, including hitting him in the head, knees and feet with sticks, as alleged in the affidavit.
The 6-year-old girl told detectives that Hayes pushed her stepson into the water, adding that she didn't want to swim, but Dakota was going to throw him into the pool. Ta.
She said Hayes threw the toddler into the pool multiple times and frequently had to “pull her up from the bottom.”
An autopsy on the boy revealed he had suffered “multiple traumas” to his head, face and torso, which apparently occurred over an extended period of time.
Atkins also “expressed concerns” to deputies about Hayes' alleged past aggressive behavior toward his son, the affidavit states.
Hayes is being held in the Crawford County Jail on $1 million bail, while Atkins is being held on $750,000 bail.
It is unclear whether they have retained attorneys who can speak on their behalf.
The newspaper has reached out to the Crawford County Sheriff's Office for comment.
