ROY, Utah — A man who pleaded guilty last week to killing a 2-year-old boy and abusing the boy's twin sister will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Jonathan Allen Dunn, age 37, was arrested in December after the boy was found not breathing at a home in Roy. The toddler was taken to the hospital, where he later died. His twin sister was also hospitalized with a brain bleed.
Dunn was considered to be a close friend of the children's family. On Aug. 13, he pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and one count of aggravated child abuse.
"He took two happy, healthy two-year-olds and destroyed them both," said Letitia Toombs with the Weber County Attorney's Office.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole, which was part of his plea deal that included taking the death penalty off the table.
“I’m sorry for what I’ve done and it haunts me every day, and I hope one day the family can forgive me for what I’ve done,” Dunn said at his sentencing.
The family did not find his statement believable.
"Jonathan, you are the epitome of evil and our family will never forgive you for the damage that you have done and the evil acts you have performed to these sweet, innocent babies," said Kari Miller, the toddlers' aunt.
Charging documents state that on the night of Dec. 20, 2023, Dunn was babysitting the pair of 2-year-olds. He told police the next day in an interview that he was playing a game with the toddlers, but he began punching them — "hitting them harder than he should have," the arrest report stated. He said he also pinched them hard, threw them on the bed repeatedly while they cried, hit them in the head with the butt of a Nerf gun, and pushed them into a doorframe, on which they hit their heads.
Dunn gave the children medicine that night before going to bed. The next morning, he said the boy was wheezing, so he gave him more medicine. Later that morning, he said the boy stopped breathing, and that's when he called 911.
"On the evening of Dec. 21, 2023, our family received the worst news that you could possibly ever receive," said Miller.
Police also said there was evidence of sexual abuse to both children.
“This is not a mistake, this is not an accident, this was not anything other than intentional depravity," said Judge Noel S. Hyde. "There are no words that can adequately describe the level of depravity that this circumstance evokes.”
A letter from the surviving sibling's therapist was read aloud in court, who said the young girl suffers nightmares and now hits herself in the head.
"As indicated by her therapist, we will never know the full effect of that brain trauma," said Toombs.
This is not Dunn's first time being convicted of child abuse. In 2017, he was sentenced to prison for breaking his then-girlfriend's child's arm. He was discharged Dec. 2021.
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