OR - Dominic Freel, 5 mos, murdered, Milton-Freewater, 8 June 2016

Abby Smart was still wearing her McDonald’s uniform as she cried over the body of her infant boy in a hospital room.

Her sister, Allicia Stapleton of Dayton, said she arrived minutes later the evening of June 8 to the emergency department at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla and heard Abby wailing. Stapleton said she found her 17-year-old sister alone and clutching her 5-month-old baby, Dominic. He was in a little white blanket and was dead...

The boy’s father, Evan Freel, 16, of Milton-Freewater, faces charges of murder by abuse and first-degree criminal mistreatment for the baby’s death.

Click to expand...

According to a source with close knowledge of the incident, Freel was home with the infant boy while his 17-year-old mother was at work. The source told us that Freel was playing video games and became agitated when the infant did not stop crying. He reportedly grabbed the infant and “strangled him”...

According to Primus, the official cause of death is listed as “blunt force trauma to the head,” which echoes the statements of sources close to the investigation that attributed the cause of death to “abusive head trauma”...

Click to expand...

Freel, 18, and his defense attorney, Kara Davis of Pendleton, negotiated Wednesday with the Umatilla County District Attorney’s Office. Davis said the settlement conference resulted with Freel agreeing to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter and accept a sentence of approximately 14 years in prison.

Court records show Freel goes to court June 1 to change his plea.

Click to expand...

Evan Freel, 18, stood Friday morning in circuit court in Pendleton and admitted he killed his infant son Dominic nearly two years ago.

Abby Smart, the baby’s mother, told the court a part of her also died that day.

First-degree manslaughter carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years in Oregon. Sullivan explained Freel will receive credit for the time he served in custody since his arrest for his son’s death, but otherwise he will serve the full stint plus four more years. The extra 48 months were an “upward departure,” the judge said, because Dominic was a vulnerable victim.

Click to expand...