NICHOLAS MILLER - 17 Months (2009) - Dakota County MN

A grand jury has upgraded murder charges against a Dakota County man accused of beating his 17-month-old stepson to death.
Tylar James Hokanson, 23, is now charged with three counts of murder
in the first degree while committing child abuse and three counts of
murder in the second degree while committing a felony.

He was initially charged in July with one count of unintentional second degree murder in the death of Nicholas Arthur Miller.
According to the criminal complaint filed in July, Hokanson admitted shaking Miller 10 to 15 times because the boy threw a fit.
Miller died June 23 in Pierce County, Wis. -- the family had
traveled there to visit Hokanson's mother. But, according to the
criminal complaint, he had shown signs of injury for at least four days.
The Pierce County medical examiner discovered signs of trauma and requested an autopsy by the Ramsey County medical examiner.
The autopsy showed multiple injuries to the child, including brain injuries. Previous injuries that had healed were also found.
Pierce County sheriff's officials handed the case over to Dakota County.
Hokanson is married to Miller's mother who has another child with
Miller's father. Hokanson and Miller's mother also have a newborn
together. Hokanson is being held on $500,000 bail.

Please help his poor baby get justice!
Please help be Nicholas's voice. This sweet angel was savagely beaten
and left to suffer for 5 days with a broken back, broken ribs, bleeding
on the brain and although his mother and grandmother knew he needed
medical help they did nothing for this sweet angel. If they had acted,
he could have been saved. Please write to the prosecutor and demand
justice for Nicholas. His mother and grandmother should also be charged in his death for failing to provide Nicholas with medical help.
You can email the Attorney James C. Backstrom
at
attorney@co.dakota.mn.us

Email Campaign For Nicholas Miller "30 Day Campaign For Justice"

https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116140735065668&ref=mf#!/event.php?eid=102782053105259&ref=ts

please attend this campaign. it will only take a few min of your time to let the attorneys know you want justice for nicholas and you want his mother charged as well

Nicholas Miller ♥ Rest In Peace Baby Angel

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nicholas-Miller-3-Rest-In-Peace-Baby-Angel/107534352620699?ref=mf

Tylar James Hokanson cried out of guilt when investigators told him his stepson's death was being investigated as a homicide, a prosecutor told a jury Monday as his murder trial nears its end.


Hokanson, 24, of Hastings, has pleaded not guilty to accusations he repeatedly shook his 17-month-old stepson, causing multiple injuries that led to his death, and then refused to get him medical treatment. After nearly two weeks of trial, a 12-member jury began deliberating the case Monday in Dakota County District Court.The jury is considering whether to convict Hokanson of three felony counts each of first- and second-degree murder in the death of Nicholas Miller. To convict Hokanson of the first-degree murder charges, the jury must agree the defendant showed a past pattern of child abuse in at least two instances.Prosecutors allege Hokanson shook his stepson June 19, 2009, and caused multiple blunt-force trauma, bleeding in his brain, a fractured back and fluid leaking into his lung cavity. Nicholas had multiple bruises on his face and body when he died.A frustrated Hokanson attacked his stepson after his aunt removed him from timeout — a punishment Hokanson doled out, Assistant Dakota County Attorney Cheri Townsend told the jury. Before Nicholas' death, she said, Hokanson told the child's family to "stop babying him" and "he needs to learn to act like a man.""He wasn't a man," Townsend argued. "He was a baby."Nicholas died June 23, 2009, atHokanson's relative's house in Pierce County in rural western Wisconsin — five days after the alleged attack at the Hokansons' house near Northfield.Defense attorney Lauri Traub told the jury no one knows what killed Nicholas. Hokanson admitted to investigators that he shook Nicholas 10 to 15 times, with a force of five or six on a scale of 10. But the prosecution didn't prove that Hokanson's actions that day caused Nicholas' death, she said.Traub told the jury, "No one knows what caused Nicholas Miller's death — and you don't get to guess."Traub also turned attention on Nicholas' mother, Melissa Ohmann Hokanson, who testified. By age 18, Melissa Hokanson had three children all younger than 2, Traub said. When she described her son during the trial, she said, "He was a whining kid who cried all the time for no reason."Brian Miller, Nicholas' biological father, also testified. Hokanson initially accused Miller — who admitted to shaking his daughter in the past — of possibly inflicting the injuries on Nicholas."There were other people who were around this child in the last days of his life," Traub said. The defense claimed police failed to interview other possible suspects and wrongly accused Hokanson.During testimony, Miller denied hitting or shaking his son before his death. However, he did admit to shaking his daughter — Nicholas' sister — when she was 6 months old."I try to forget that day," Miller said. An autopsy report revealed that Nicholas had five posterior rib fractures that occurred during the last five months of his life. The fractures were "indicative of child abuse," Townsend said. Upon finding Nicholas' injuries, authorities also examined the Hokansons' other children. They found no injuries on Hokanson's stepdaughter; however, authorities reported that they found posterior rib fractures in the couple's 6-week-old baby, Townsend said. The injuries were three to four weeks old and similar to the ones found on Nicholas.Hokanson did not testify during the trial.If convicted of first-degree murder, Hokanson faces mandatory life imprisonment with the possibility of parole in 30 years. If convicted of the lesser second-degree charges, he could face up to 40 years in prison for each count. The jury continued to deliberate late Monday afternoon.

A Dakota County jury deliberated into Thanksgiving Day before convicting farmhand Tylar Hokanson of murder in the 2009 shaken-baby death of his 17-month-old stepson, Nicholas Miller.
Hokanson, 24, and his mother sobbed at the verdict and the mandatory life sentence immediately handed down by Dakota County District Judge Robert King. Hokanson and his mother were allowed to hug before deputies took him away to serve 30 years in prison before he can be considered for parole.
Hokanson was convicted of two counts apiece of first- and second-degree murder during malicious punishment and neglect of a child. Hokanson had let others believe his stepson had fallen and had asthma over a hot Father's Day weekend and until the next Tuesday, when he died in Wisconsin with a bleeding brain, broken back and crushed lungs.Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom called it "one of the most horrific" cases of child abuse he's seen in the county in many years, since the 2002 slaying of 3-year-old Dillon Blocker of Lakeville by his mother's boyfriend, who also got life in prison.The jury acquitted Hokanson of one count each of first- and second-degree murder during third-degree assault on a child. Backstrom said it was a long and difficult process for jurors, who deliberated about 31 hours."They appeared to have spent a great deal of time reviewing the evidence to make sure they made the right decision, and they did so," he said. "Justice has been served this afternoon in Hastings."Assistant County Attorney Cheri Townsend had told jurors that Hokanson violently shook the baby on June 19, 2009, at a Northfield farmhouse and then prevented medical care that could have stopped his slow death over the next four days.Defense attorney Lauri Traub argued that the state did not prove the cause of death and suggested the tot's biological father killed him.

Northfield mom of dead toddler charged



Melissa Hokanson, whose husband was convicted of murder last month, has been charged with neglect.




The mother of a toddler killed by his stepfather has been charged in connection with the boy's death, accused of failing to seek care that prosecutors say could have saved her son.
Melissa Hokanson, 19, of rural Northfield was charged on Tuesday with one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of child neglect, according to the Dakota County attorney's office.
Tylar Hokanson, 24, was convicted last month of first- and second-degree murder in the death of 17-month-old Nicholas Miller. After suffering crippling injuries, Nicholas went for days with a broken back and a bleeding brain, his lungs filling with fluid before he died on June 23, 2009.
"The saddest thing about this entire tragedy is that this little boy's death could have been prevented," Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom said on Tuesday. A medical examiner and a child abuse expert have said that with medical intervention, Nicholas could have survived his injuries, according to the charges filed against Melissa Hokanson.
Chris Lehmann, a public defender appointed to represent Hokanson, said on Tuesday that he had advised her not to talk to anyone about the charges until they have had a chance to review documents



read more....

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/111855324.html

Bloody excellent!! I hope she gets the maximum.

kiwimom wrote:Bloody excellent!! I hope she gets the maximum.

I hope this starts happening more and more in this country. These young moms who stand by and do nothing while their babies are abused are just as culpable, in many ways more so, as the perps.