South Dakota Victims

By Chuck Harmer

Story Created: Apr 21, 2010 at 9:04 PM CDT

Story Updated: Apr 21, 2010 at 10:30 PM CDT

14-month old Deryun Wilson suffered head trauma and significant brain damage and that's what police say killed the infant.

Police tell us that the child's parents brought the boy to the hospital fairly soon after the injury.

14-month old Deryun Wilson suffered head trauma and significant brain damage and that's what police say killed the infant.

Police tell us that the child's parents brought the boy to the hospital fairly soon after the injury.

A 14-month old baby is dead tonight after police say the infant was severely injured from child abuse.

The neighbor across the street saw the baby before the family brought him to the hospital. "I seen them come out carrying a lifeless little boy and I believe it was the mothers brother that was on the phone and telling them that he was unconscious," said Lavonne Forest.

From her driveway across the street, Lavonne could tell that the 14 month old was in serious trouble.

"I knew something had happened to the baby as a Mother's instinct that something bad had happened, whether it was drugs or something," said Forest.

Deryun Wilson's parents brought him to Avera McKennan hospital around 7:30 Monday night. Shortly after he arrived, someone with the hospital notified police that the injuries were consistent with child abuse.

At 7:45pm Monday the investigation began.

Lavonne noticed police arrive at the house across the street, "Probably about 9:30 at night I saw the police over here and they were not letting anybody go in the house."

Lavonne says the detectives were taking pictures inside this house and outside before leaving around 1am Tuesday.

Police say they have an idea of who is responsible for the death and speaking to the Deryun's aunts this afternoon they also have an idea of who is to blame because they say only one man was inside the house at the time.

Whoever hurt the child, police say they were no stranger and that kids in this neighborhood are safe.

Sioux Falls Man Found Guilty Of Child Abuse For Duct-Taping So
May 22, 2009 at 12:06 AM CDT
After deliberating for 5 hours, a jury found 40 year old David Woods guilty of abuse or cruelty to a minor. The Class 3 Felony carries a sentence of up to 15 years in the State Penitentiary.
Woods showed little emotion as the verdict was read. Jurors didn't deliver the verdict until around 11 p.m. Thursday evening.
Earlier in the day, Woods took the stand in his own defense, admitting that he did, indeed, wrap his son in duct tape in January of this year. But he said he was not trying to discipline the child. Instead, Wood testified that he did so in a playful manner, and that he was trying to redirect his son from whining about video games. Woods claimed his son was not affected by the incident, and that his wife, blew the situation out of proportion.
Minnehaha County State's Attorney Aaron McGowan said this was a very clear-cut case, since Woods admitted to taping his son. McGowan asked the jury to use their "South Dakota common sense", saying this was a punishment so strong, it equaled abuse.

Defense Attorney Ken Tschetter says Woods wasn't trying to discipline his son at all and speculated that Woods' wife was planning to get a divorce and used this incident to get custody of the couples' two children. The defense speculated she even went so far as to have her son pose in pictures with the duct tape wrapped around him, after the fact.

From Defend The defense's tactic of blaming the non abusive parent and claiming this is a divorce issue is very common. Blaming the victim and blaming the protective parent is actaully false accusation. Common sense tells us that the child had to have resisted being duct taped and it is not a normal play for a father and son but an act of violence. The jury found this to be child abuse.

Man accused of stabbing wife to death tried to blame their 12 year old daughter.

PIERRE, South Dakota (AP) -- A man charged with killing his wife testified that it was his 12-year-old daughter who committed the crime, but he said he tried to cover it up.

Brad Reay, 47, took the stand at his trial.

Their daughter, Haylee, testified against her father, denying his claims that he was covering up for her.

Ttwo days after the mother disappeared last February. her bady was discovered. Some of the wounds in her chest showed a knife had been forced in all the way to its hilt.

Reay said his daughter was extremely upset after they told her about the possibility of divorce when he discovered his wife was having an affair on him.

Reay said he awoke in the night to find his daughter standing over her mother with a knife in her hand. He said,. Haylee was "catatonic or in shock" and did not respond when he asked her what she'd done. Reay said his daughter did not recover from that state until after he had cleaned blood off her and placed her in bed.

Reay said he tried to make his wife's death look like she had been raped in order to divert attention from his daughter.

"I plan to go to jail for her," he said. "I didn't want her to get in trouble."

Haylee, now 13, testified last week that she never would have hurt her mother, and said she was afraid of her father and had never been very close to him.

Jurors could find Reay guilty of either first-degree murder, punishable by a mandatory term of life in prison without chance of parole, or manslaughter, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

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