The death penalty is on the table for a Las Vegas man who’s been charged with kidnapping and killing a 4-year-old boy and keeping the child’s mother captive.
Brandon Toseland, 35, allegedly kept Mason Dominguez’s body in a freezer in the garage, as CrimeOnline previously reported. The boy is believed to have died in December. His mother, Dahsia Maldonado, told police her son became ill at that time but that Toseland refused to let her take him to a hospital.
Dominguez’s body was found in late February after Maldonado sent a note to school with her 7-year-old daughter that said her boyfriend was holding her captive and she was concerned about her son. School officials contacted Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, who pulled the couple over for a traffic stop and found handcuffs attached to the front seat. A search of the house found the body in a freezer.
A Clark County grand jury handed up indictments against Toseland on Thursday, charging him with 10 counts, including murder, child abuse, kidnapping, and domestic battery, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Toseland appeared in court on Thursday, before the indictment was announced. During the hearing, Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Fleck described a “constellation of internal injuries” to Dominguez’s small intestine, caused by blunt force trauma. The boy also had cuts, bruising on his torso, abdomen, and extremities, and a bite mark on his arm.
Fleck told District Court Judge Tierra Jones on Friday that her office’s death penalty committee would review the case to determine if prosecutors will seek the death penalty. They have 30 days from Friday to file the formal documents, and Fleck said they “will probably be right up to the deadline” in making the decision.
Toseland is due back in court on April 15 and is being held in the Clark County jail without bond. According to KTNV, Toseland’s attorney, Augustus Claus, said his client would plead not guilty.
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[Featured image: Mason Dominguez/GoFundMe]
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