A dad thought shadowboxing would make his baby tough. It killed the boy instead.
A Wichita dad who told police detectives that he would shadowbox and punch his infant son because he wanted the boy to be “the toughest kid” has been ordered to serve nearly 39 years in prison for second-degree reckless murder.
Sedgwick County District Court Judge Bruce Brown sentenced 29-year-old Dorl Callus Gwyn to 467 months in prison on Friday, according to a news release from the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office. Gwyn pleaded guilty last July in the 2018 beating death of his 6-month-old son, Jazz Gwyn.
Jazz died on April 10, 2018, after his parents took him to the Via Christi St. Joseph hospital emergency room when the baby stopped breathing. Gwyn told hospital staff and police detectives that before the baby fell unconscious he had been boxing with him for about two minutes and punched him in the chest. Gwyn told police he thought roughhousing with Jazz was OK when the baby was old enough to crawl and would make the baby tough.
“He said he wanted to make him (Jazz) a tough person and his goal was to make him the toughest kid by five ... years of age,” a police affidavit in the case says.
Gwyn told police “he thought it was alright to hit a kid in the body but not the head” and that he “was not mad and did not hit out of anger,” the affidavit says.
When Jazz initially stopped breathing, Gwyn told police he gave his son CPR and started to take him to the hospital but turned around and went back home when the baby started crying, the affidavit says. Later, Gwyn told police, he noticed Jazz “was breathing funny” so he rubbed mentholated ointment under the baby’s nose.
When Jazz’s nose started bleeding and his eyes rolled back into his head, Gwyn and the mother took the baby to the hospital. Jazz’s mother was home during the roughhousing on April 10, 2018, but didn’t see it happen, the police affidavit says.
The baby’s autopsy showed he suffered extensive internal injuries including a heart laceration, two healing rib fractures, abdominal bruising, blood pooling in his chest cavity and abdomen, and head injuries.
Gwyn was originally charged with first-degree felony murder in Jazz’s death. He must register as a violent offender and serve three years of post-release supervision after he is released from prison, the DA’s news release says.
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 11:40 AM.
