Jonathan Daniel Greyheagle makes his initial Lewis County Superior Court appearance on Tuesday afternoon at the Lewis County Law and Justice Center in Chehalis.
Boyfriends: In Three High-Profile Cases, Boyfriends of Childrens’ Mothers Charged for Assaults
In the year that followed the horrific murder of 2-year-old Centralia girl Koralynn Fister, who died at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend, three more cases of severe child abuse with similar familial circumstances have made local headlines.
James M. Reeder, who prosecutors say sexually and physically abused Fister to death, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 37 years last March. He is currently housed in the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. After his sentencing, prosecutors filed charges against the mother of the dead toddler, Becky Heupel.
Heupel was charged and later pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal mistreatment for her inaction of stopping her daughter’s abuser. She is currently serving her one-year sentence at Mission Creek Corrections Center.
Heupel was not home at the time of the toddler’s death on May 24, 2012, and had left her daughter in the care of Reeder, who was her live-in boyfriend at the time. At the time of Fister’s death, her body was covered with bruises, cuts and other injuries, including two palm-sized chunks of skin missing from her buttocks, indicating to authorities that the abuse had been prolonged. Heupel admitted to police she noticed some of Koralynn’s odd injuries, but failed to stop the suspected abuse.
While none of the most recent cases of child abuse had as severe of consequences as the June 2012 homicide, in all three of the most recent cases, like in the toddler’s slaying, the alleged abusers of the children were not their fathers, but rather the current boyfriends of the victims’ mothers.
Jonathan D. Greyeagle, a 22-year-old former Walmart employee, was arrested and charged with second-degree assault of a child in August after he admitted to police that he beat a 5-year-old boy — giving the child severe bruising on his face, head and buttocks — after he “lost control,” according to court documents. The child had a black eye and significant bruising on his face, buttocks and hand.
The mother of the child, Tawni Tole, 23, of Chehalis, told police that she told Greyeagle if it ever happened again, she would leave him, court documents state. She did not call the police.
The Chehalis man later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge a little more than a month later — third-degree assault of a child — and a judge sentenced him to one year and eight months in prison. He was also ordered to attend parenting classes.
In October,a 22-year-old Mineral man was jailed after the 4-month-old baby of his ex-girlfriend sustained injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome while in his care, according to court documents. Kyle J. Davison currently awaits a May trial date in jail in lieu of $100,000 bail for first-degree assault of a child.
The child's mother, Llacye Faye Link, was not home at the time of the alleged assault, which occurred on Oct. 2, because she had left the house to go buy marijuana, according to court documents. Davison told police that he had been drinking earlier that night, and when Link left the house, the baby had started choking on food and he panicked and shook the baby in an attempt to save it.
While he initially denied shaking the baby to police, he later admitted to it, saying, "I knew better, I knew better, I shouldn't have done that, I knew better," according to court documents.
The baby was later airlifted to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital where the child was put on life support to assist with breathing, court documents state.
The most recent case of child abuse involved a 31-year-old Winlock man who allegedly made the 4-year-old son of his girlfriend do wall squats, dunked the boy in a dirty pool of water and made him do pushups while he sprayed him with a hose, according to court documents.
Ryon T. Connery is also accused of hitting and spanking the child so severely that the boy sustained bruises on his legs.
The child also told investigators that while Connery hurt him, his mother would watch, according to court documents. Both Connery and the mother allegedly told the child that he needed to go to a mental hospital.
The boy’s mother told police she had been dating Connery for about four months, according to court documents. She admitted her boyfriend made her child do wall squats and pushups while he sprayed the boy with a hose, but she denied he ever hurt him.
Connery is charged with two counts of second-degree child assault. He is currently in custody of the Lewis County Jail awaiting a February trial. His bail is set at $75,000.
Connery is a level-two sex offender, which stemmed from a 1999 conviction of second-degree child molestation. Connery, who was 17-year-old at the time, sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl.
