COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A man accused of beating his girlfriend's toddler son to death caused such damage to the boy's head that his skull fell apart in the hands of doctors performing an autopsy, prosecutors said Friday.
Dantis Porter, 28, is accused of killing 1-year-old Johnny Kimble, beating the boy to death because he would not stop crying.
Porter appeared in court Friday for the first time since Johnny died Jan. 9, three days after the alleged attack. A Cook County judge ordered him held without bail.
On Jan. 6, Porter was home watching Jonny and three other children between the ages of 2 and 4 while Johnny's mother was at work, prosecutors said.
When the boy would not stop crying, Porter struck him several times in the head, causing Johnny to fall and his head repeatedly on the floor and door frame, prosecutors said.
Porter "left [Johnny] on a love seat for a period of hours before putting the child in a stroller where the child's mother found him unresponsive" when she came home to the 1100 block of West Marquette Road about 7:15 p.m., prosecutors said. Johnny was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, with multiple skull fractures, a lacerated liver, internal bleeding, a broken rib and injuries to his lungs, prosecutors said. He also had numerous burns on his body.
He was not expected to survive, and died Jan. 9.
Doctors found massive brain swelling and multiple skull fractures, prosecutors said. "Part of the skull broke off in the [medical examiner's] hands during the autopsy," prosecutors said.
The Medical Examiner's Office said Johnny died of closed head injuries due to blunt force impact to his head. They found multiple recent injuries, as well.
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