A Springville teenager convicted of second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend’s toddler son last year was given the maximum penalty.
17-year-old Dylan Schumaker from Buffalo, New York, thought he was going to get off easy for beating his girlfriend’s 23-month-old son to death.
Schumaker appeared in court for sentencing. During his trial in court, Schumaker had his sad face ready and his privilege intact when State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller was ready to hand down punishment, but one thing stood in his way unexpectedly: his own words.
When Schumaker was questioned by the judge whether he was not intended to kill Austin or thought that repeatedly hitting will not produce such a result. Dylan Schumaker told that all he can do now is to cry only and to feel sorry for what he has done.
Schumaker cried and apologized to the victim’s mother, “I can’t take back what was done. I wish I could. I’d give my life for Austin. I loved him a lot.” He told the Juror that he did not mean to kill Austin.
However, Ashlee, who convicted him for the murder, did not accept his apology, either the Supreme Court.
Judge M. William Boller reveal a horrible thing Schumaker did, “The record will show that you admitted on July 23, 2013, in a phone call to your mother from a holding center you stated: “I am a sixteen-year-old blond. Probably all I have to do is cry in front of the jury, and they’re going to feel sorry for me.”
The teenager was found guilty and was sentenced to a maximum punishment of a life sentence of 25 years.
According to a Buffalo News report Justice M. William Boller cited 13 letters from witnesses and family members and called Schumaker “a manipulator and deceiver” before giving him the maximum sentence.
The incident happened on March 19, 2013 night when Schumaker was babysitting Austin and his 3-month-old brother, while their mother, his girlfriend, was at work. Schumaker was then convicted in a jury trial.
The prosecutors said Smith was hit in the head multiple times by Schumaker. He allegedly used a pillow to hide the boy’s face before beating him three times in an attempt to force him to stop sobbing. It leads to ruptured blood vessels causing internal brain bleeding.
Schumaker then shared what happened that day, he said, when the toddler spits out the food, he slapped the toddler’s face and punched him. He added that while changing his diaper when the boy tried to get up, he slammed his head on the floor. Later, he placed a pillow over the boy’s head back and punched him repeatedly as he was fearful that Austin will wake up his baby brother.
After the medical assessment, the medical examiner opined that the injuries of the child were not due to a fall and slip, but due to multiple child’s injuries in the head. The other evidence (including text messages) highlighted that around 5:00 PM Austin was initially injured and inflicted further injuries over a time span of several hours that evening.
The medical examiner established that the reason behind the death of the boy was diffuse axonal injury leading toward no prolonged survival and he died. The evidence underlined that there were breaks in hitting Austin while he was sending messages. Around 5:00 PM he shared with his girlfriend, that Austin fell down but after several hours he was texting a different young woman and also found another person to sell synthetic marihuana. Thus, the evidence highlighted while hitting the toddler, 16 years old Schumaker was busy in other commercial and social activities as well.
William Boller, state Supreme Court Justice, said that the hearing was heart-wrenching. He was of the view that no matter you are only 16 years of age you still know what is right or wrong. Boller added that Dylan Schumaker was well aware of the consequence while hitting the toddler.
Here are some comments from the folks online:
“Everybody is remorseful and genuinely regrets their actions when they face prison. He’s crying for what he is about to lose, not for that little boy.”
“Imagine literally beating the life out of someone then saying you didn’t mean to hurt them”
“That 16yr olds attorney didn’t even know what he was defending.”
“It was a situational circumstantial thing”… I can never understand how some defense attorneys can sleep at night after saying things like this..”
“white privilege at it’s finest!! And for those who don’t think it’s real…most likely they’re the ones reaping the benefits of it.”
Watch it here: Youtube/WIVBTV
Sources: Awm, Wgrz, Buffalonews
