(WXYZ) — Wixom police say a man has been charged in connection to the death of a 4-year-old boy.
According to police, first responders were called to a home in the 30700 block of Beechwood Street on March 5 to help a boy who was reportedly unconscious and had shallow breathing. An investigation determined that the boy, identified as Jaice Dupont, had life-threatening injuries to his skull.
Police say Dupont passed away on the afternoon of March 10. Officials say the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office will now be revisiting the initial charges in the case.
Police say the only adult with him at the time of his injuries was 30-year-old Wixom resident Deangelo Levell Hawkins, who is the boy’s guardian.
7 Action News has learned that Hawkins lived with the toddler and his mother. The police investigation includes finding out more about previous cases of broken ribs and a stomach injury doctors say are consistent with blunt force trauma. Police say the mother is cooperating.
When the toddler was treated at Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor on Saturday, he had a skull fracture and brain bleed.
Hawkins first told police the boy fell while brushing his teeth. But then changed his story when told by police he failed a polygraph exam.
Wixom Police Chief Ron Moore tells 7 Action News, "He has cooperated as far as participating and sitting through multiple interviews with detectives, but we have reason to believe in those interviews, the content of those interviews he was less than truthful. To see a little defenseless boy like this or a defenseless child suffer in this manner, yeah, this is serious business."
The Oakland County Jail record shows Hawkins was not in custody and has pending serious charges in Wayne County that include felony assault of police with a gun, 2 counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, adult kidnapping, and assault less than murder.
Officials say Hawkins was arraigned on March 10 on First Degree Child Abuse charges. He is being held at the Oakland County Jail on a $1 million bond.
