Murder charge added as Minnesota toddler taken off life support
Updated: 3:10 p.m. | Posted: 1 p.m.
Prosecutors in Pine County added a second-degree murder charge against a 31-year-old man after the 3-year-old boy he is accused of beating was taken off life support.
Dante Sears was taken off life support Saturday. His parents said they've donated Dante's organs so he can "be a hero in another child's life."
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Jonathan Loun, the boyfriend of Dante's mother, was charged earlier with assault and malicious punishment of a child. After the murder charge was added, County Attorney Reese Frederickson said he would seek the maximum sentence of 40 years in prison if Loun is convicted.
Authorities say Dante's mother, Jessica Carr, went to work Monday and left the boy and a sibling in the care of her boyfriend. When she returned home she found her son's badly beaten body.
The criminal complaint says police found Loun under a tree in a wooded area with non-life threatening, self-inflicted knife wounds.
MPR News reporter Riham Feshir contributed to this report.