A cruel Arkansas stepfather who allegedly tossed his 2-year-old stepson into a pool repeatedly to teach him how to swim has been charged with the tot’s murder.
Dakota Shawn Hays, 20, and his wife Annastacia Atkins, 24, were arrested on Monday over the child’s death from a lack of oxygen to the brain.
The pair, from Van Buren, face charges of first-degree murder, according to an arrest warrant obtained by People.
Hays was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child while Atkins faces charges of permitting the abuse of a minor, according to online jail records from the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office.
The boy died on June 17, 2024, three days after Atkins and Hays called 911 when he became unresponsive after swimming in a pool at his aunt’s house, according to an affidavit for warrant of arrest filed Jan. 2, the outlet reported.
When deputies arrived at the family home on June 14, the little boy’s body was freezing and his “eyes were stuck,” Atkins allegedly said according to the affidavit.
She said his heart and breathing had stopped, and when she started pushing his chest, he choked up water, the document stated.
Hays told officers he had been teaching the boy how to swim, along with another boy, 4, and a 6-year-old girl, according to the affidavit.
Hays told deputies that “the three kids would hang onto him on the chest and he would grab their noses and sink to the bottom with them, sit there, and go back up to the surface,” according to the affidavit.
But the 4-year-old told detectives he had almost drowned as a result of Hays throwing him in the pool, the affidavit said.
He added that Hays and Atkins would physically punish him by hitting him with a stick on his head, knees and feet, as alleged in the affidavit.
The 6-year-old girl told detectives that Hays pushed his stepson under the water, adding that he “did not want to swim but Dakota would throw him in the pool,” per the affidavit.
She said that Hays threw the toddler into the pool repeatedly and that she had to often “retrieve him from the bottom.”
The boy’s autopsy found he also suffered from “multiple traumatic injuries” to the head, face and torso, which had evidently happened over a long period.
Atkins also “voiced concern” to deputies about Hays’ alleged aggressive behavior with her son in the past, the affidavit states.
Hays is held in the Crawford County Jail on a $1 million bond, while Atkins is held on a $750,000 bond.
It is unclear whether they have retained attorneys who can speak on their behalf.
The Post has reached out to the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
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