Wichita boy, 4, beaten to death on Dec. 8 endured abuse for months, record says
A 4-year-old boy who died after he was briefly left alone with his mother’s boyfriend at their south Wichita apartment on Dec. 8 was hit in the stomach so hard that it killed him.
But it wasn’t the first time Tiuri Blunt-Porrata had suffered, allegedly at the hands of 34-year-old Daniel P. Martin, who is now charged with abusing and murdering him.
Medical staff who examined the little boy’s body documented numerous injuries, including cluster bruising on his belly, shoulders, legs, face and neck; large bruises on his back and head; a cut on the top of his scalp; deep purple bruising on his left ear; and genital bruises likely caused by pinching.
Tiuri also had massive internal bleeding.
The details are included in a probable cause affidavit released last week that give new details about some of the violence Tiuri endured in the five months before he was killed. Prosecutors allege the abuse started as early as July, when Martin moved into an apartment in the 2600 block of South Topeka with Tiuri, his mother and his siblings.
On the day Tiuri was beaten to death, Martin was the only adult in the apartment during a roughly 14-minute window while his mother had gone to pick up his grandmother from work and another roommate walked to a nearby store to buy a mop, according to the affidavit.
Before either returned, Tiuri was harmed to the point that he stopped breathing.
First responders rushed Tiuri to the hospital after Martin called 911.
But it was too late.
He died from what a medical examiner called “repeat blunt abdominal trauma,” ongoing blows to the mid-section that can be harmful enough to cause severe internal injuries, organ damage, internal bleeding and sometimes death.
When law enforcement asked Martin what happened, he initially claimed Tiuri had suddenly slumped over, went limp and stopped breathing after looking like he might throw up. The boy had been vomiting for a week from a stomach bug, the affidavit says Martin told police.
Martin tried to explain away Tiuri’s injuries with stories about how the boy had fallen or been jumped on by a dog. He claimed the boy started complaining of stomach pain “a few days after Thanksgiving” after he sneaked leftover turkey.
But as detectives pushed back at the claims, Martin’s descriptions got more physical.
He told police that about a week before Tiuri’s death, he had hit the boy in the stomach and “pushed him away” for stumbling while they walked a dog. The blow was so hard, Martin said, that Tiuri “doubled over in pain,” the affidavit says.
Around the same time, he hit the boy again to demonstrate what real pain felt like after Tiuri complained of hurting, the affidavit says Martin told police.
About four days before Tiuri died, Martin said he kneed the 4-year-old in the stomach when the boy jumped at him from the bottom of a staircase. Martin also said he would crack the boy’s neck using “a quick motion he learned from a chiropractor” and admitted to grabbing the boy’s genitals “too hard” during a bathroom episode, the affidavit says.
Eventually, Martin told police that on the day Tiuri died, he had “lost his cool and was frustrated with everything between vomiting and caring for the house” that he blacked out and knuckle-punched Tiuri in the throat and possibly the stomach, according to the affidavit.
In a jail phone call with Tiuri’s parents after his arrest, Martin also admitted to smacking and pressing on Tiuri’s stomach “pretty hard,” slapping and elbowing him, and punching him in the stomach at various times before the boy died, the affidavit says.
Martin repeatedly insisted that he never meant to hurt the boy, the affidavit says. He is charged with one count of felony first-degree murder and two counts of child abuse.
Tiuri’s mother, 27-year-old Tyne Vallen Blunt, reportedly knew about some of the abuse but didn’t make Martin leave, only talked to him “about not being so rough,” the affidavit says.
She told police that her son had been ill and vomiting from what she thought was the flu, that he’d hurt his genitals climbing into a bunk bed and that falls from a chair and down the stairs caused the bruises, according to the affidavit. She is also charged with first-degree felony murder and two counts of aggravated child endangerment in connection with Tiuri’s death.
Neither has had an opportunity to enter a not-guilty or other plea. Martin’s next court date is scheduled for Jan. 15. Blunt is due in court again on Dec. 29.
