Mother Of Boy Beaten To Death For Urinating On Couch Pleads Guilty

September 1, 2011 at 9:06 am by Morbid  

Flint, MI — The mother of 4-year-old Dominick Calhoun, the boy who was tortured to death over the course of four days, will spend the next 13 to 30 years in prison after she pleads guilty to second-degree murder.

I know a lot of you are familiar with this case, but for those of you who are not and don’t feel like reading our original article, let me ruin your morning a bit.

Last April, 4-year-old Dominick was sitting on a couch eating cereal when he accidentally wet his pants. His mother’s boyfriend, 24-year old Brandon Hayes, became enraged and began beating the boy. Over the course of four days Hayes would punch, kick, and burn Dominick. He would even stick his thumbs in the little boy’s eyes.

Dominick’s mother, Corrine Baker, would also become the recipient of some of Hayes’ abuse, but at no time did she ever alert anyone that Dominick was being severely beaten even though she had multiple chances to do so and her friends were urging her to call police.

Dominick Calhoun

It wasn’t until Baker’s younger sister came to the apartment to buy drugs that anything was done to save Dominick, but by then it was too late. Corrine’s younger sibling saw signs of abuse and immediately called her grandfather who in turn called police pleading for someone to go check on the boy.

Officers would find Dominick in his bedroom unconscious and moaning. He was admitted to the hospital where doctors had to remove a piece of the boy’s skull to accommodate his swollen brain. He was pronounced dead the next morning and Hayes was then charged with his murder.

Baker was later charged with second-degree murder and second-degree child abuse for her actions, or inactions, that led to her son’s horrific death. She had allegedly told friends she couldn’t contact police because she feared they’d think she abused the boy or arrest her for violating her probation by moving without notifying officials. She didn’t take her son to hospital for fear of Child Protective Services getting involved.

Both Baker and Hayes were to be tried next Wednesday in a combined trial, but Baker has decided to save a little bit of her skin and plead guilty to both second-degree murder and second-degree child abuse. By doing so, she is no longer looking at a possible life sentence. In exchange, she will still be at the trial on Sept 7, but now as a witness against Hayes.

Baker will be sentenced on October 24th where she can get anywhere from 13 to 30 years in prison. I’m going to assume that her performance during Hayes’ trial will factor into the judge’s decision. The prosecution says that this is not a plea deal and that they can choose to use Baker’s testimony or not. The family is behind the deal because it means Dominick’s older brother, who was present during the beatings, may not have to testify.

If you’d like to keep up with this case, then check out Justice for Dominick Calhoun!, the Facebook Page with over 60,000 followers that has everything you want to know about this case and has been following it since the beginning.

I’m also including part one of a five part interview with Baker conducted days after her son’s death. You can watch the entire interview, just recently released in its entirety, over at ConnectMidMichigan.com

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