A 25-year-old St. Paul man pleaded guilty Wednesday to unintentionally killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son and causing life-threatening injuries to her 2-year-old daughter while punishing the children last winter.
Alontae Butts entered the pleas to one count of second-degree murder and a second count of malicious punishment of a child in a Ramsey County district courtroom while the children’s mother cried in the gallery.
The woman declined to comment after the hearing.
Instead of entering a traditional guilty plea, Butts opted to enter an Alford plea, which means he maintains his innocence while acknowledging that the state likely has enough evidence to convict him at trial.
His attorney, public defender Connie Iverson, said Butts’ decision was compelled by a plea deal offered to him by prosecutors. The deal includes dismissing additional charges against Butts and sentencing him to concurrent 15-year prison terms when he is sentenced in June.
Paramedics responded to the home the children had lived in on Carroll Avenue in St. Paul last Jan. 15 on a report of an unresponsive child.
They found Levi Gardet, 3, in cardiac arrest with bruises on his face and abdomen and took him by ambulance to Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Jennifer Verdeja outlined the testimony and evidence compiled against Butts during his plea hearing Wednesday.
Verdeja said Levi’s mom testified that she told police she left the children in Butts’ care when she left for work about 5:30 p.m. the previous evening and that the children were fine at the time.
Shortly after she got home from work around midnight, she discovered Levi had vomited and complained of intense stomach pain. She also noticed marks on his cheek that Butts told her had been caused by a cord the boy had been swinging around, Verdeja said.
The boy finally fell asleep around 8 a.m. Jan. 15 but continued to wake up in pain several times to use the bathroom, according to court documents. When his mom went to check on him around 3:40 p.m. that day, she found him unresponsive and called 911.
Doctor’s discovered Levi had suffered multiple traumatic injuries, including a tear to his small bowel and hemorrhages to his liver and diaphragm, Verdeja said.
A medical examiner subsequently ruled his death a homicide caused by blunt-force trauma.
Levi’s siblings were also examined by medical staff, Verdeja said.
A nurse noticed his 2-year-old sister had a distended abdomen that doctors subsequently discovered had been caused by a third-degree tear to her liver. The child could have died form the injury but survived thanks to early intervention, Verdeja said.
The children’s 6-year-old brother later told staff at Midwest Children’s Resource Center that Butts was abusive toward them when he watched then. He said he sometimes choked them to sleep or knocked them out by hitting them in the cheek. He also said Butts put his foot on Levi while the boy was on the ground.
He said the abuse happened when they “were bad” or “wouldn’t stop crying.”
An inmate who briefly shared a cell with Butts while he was awaiting his first appearance in the case told investigators Butts had told him he “lost his temper” with Levi and “had stomped on his stomach,” Verdeja said.
Butts shook his head as Verdeja spoke and often looked down. At one point, he used a tissue to dab his eyes.
The children’s mother and grandmother and their grandmother’s significant other — who also lived at the residence — had all been working intense hours prior to the boy’s death, meaning the children were often alone in Butts’ care.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in mid-June.