Wichita dad pleads guilty to murdering toddler son found starved and bound in crib
A Wichita father charged with first-degree felony murder in the April 2019 malnutrition and dehydration death of his 2-year-old son pleaded guilty last week to one count of aggravated kidnapping and a reduced charge of second-degree reckless murder, Sedgwick County District Court records show.
Patrick Javonovich, 31, also pleaded guilty to abusing his girlfriend’s infant son, who was found in critical condition at the same time police discovered his brother’s body.
Javonovich’s sentencing date has not yet been announced. His 26-year-old girlfriend, Brandi Marchant, who is the mother of the two boys, is also facing murder, child abuse and aggravated endangerment charges. Court records indicate she will enter a plea in the case Wednesday, ahead of her Aug. 1 trial.
Both remained in the Sedgwick County Jail on Tuesday.
Police arrested Javonovich and Marchant after an officer responding to a domestic violence call at their south Wichita trailer home found their toddler, Zaiden Javonovich, dead in his crib and Marchant’s 4-month-old son in dire health.
The coroner determined Zaiden died from not getting enough to eat or drink and also of possible asphyxia; at 31 inches tall, he weighed just 14.9 pounds, about half the weight of a typical 2-year-old. He also had methamphetamine in his brain and cuts on his face, the autopsy says. He was found with the sleeves of his pajamas knotted around his upper chest near his throat and tightly swaddled in a blanket.
His baby brother, police have said, was also so severely underweight at 8 pounds that couldn’t control his neck muscles to support his head or regulate his body temperature, court records show.
It’s unclear exactly when Zaiden died. Marchant told police she tied his clothing to keep him from crawling out of his crib. She told police laid him bound and face down in his crib on the evening of April 10 and slept through the next day without checking on either of her sons, court records show.
Javonovich also didn’t check on the children after arriving home from work, the records say.
Police investigating a neighbor’s complaint about the couple fighting went into the trailer, in the 4500 block of South Hydraulic, on April 11, 2019, after one of the parents mentioned having children.
Javonovich and Marchant told police they had been feeding the children regularly and didn’t know that Zaiden had died.
The amended murder charge alleges Javonovich killed his son “unintentionally but recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.” Originally, he was charged with killing the boy while committing another felony crime, namely child abuse or aggravated endangering of a child, a complaint filed in the case says.
He faces at least 147 months in prison on the kidnapping count, at least 109 months for murder and at least 31 months for child abuse, according to his plea agreement.
