A 40-year-old Montana man will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison after killing his 4-year-old stepson by beating him and immersing him in a scalding hot bathtub until he died in 2021.
On Wednesday, Yellowstone County District Court Judge Collette Davies sentenced Kristopher Michael Harasymczuk to 80 years in a state prison for the murder of young Jaxsynn Gatlin.
Davies sentenced Harasymczuk to 80 years on one count of intentional homicide and 15 years on each count of assaulting a minor and tampering with evidence, with all sentences to run concurrently, or at the same time. He was found guilty in March following a jury trial.
Lana Marie Harasymczuk, 37, the boy’s mother, was also charged on Tuesday in connection with his death. She is charged with three counts of child endangerment and tampering or fabricating physical evidence.
According to the Billings Gazette, officers from the Billings Police Department and emergency medical personnel responded to the family’s home on Woodgrain Drive on October 22, 2021, for an unresponsive child.
When first responders arrived, they discovered Jaxsynn on the floor in the bathroom next to the bathtub. The child’s skin was already dry when medics arrived, and it was warmer than usual.
The boy was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after.
An autopsy determined that his death was a homicide, with hyperthermia as the most likely cause, citing the child’s temperature of 102 degrees on the day of his death. The boy’s face also showed signs of abuse, including bruises.
In subsequent interviews, Jaxsynn’s siblings reportedly confirmed that Kristopher Harasymczuk had physically abused them.
The boy’s mother initially claimed that Jaxsynn went to take a bath alone, that Kristopher Harasymczuk was not present, and that her son fell and drowned on his own, according to Great Falls, Montana CBS affiliate KRTV.
However, when confronted with evidence of abuse, she reportedly admitted that her husband was the last person in the bathroom with the victim before he died, and that she heard the boy screaming just before his death.
“This is the worst one I’ve been involved in for sure,” Yellowstone senior deputy county attorney John Ryan told jurors, according to KRTV.
Billings, Montana. According to CBS affiliate KTVQ, in addition to hyperthermia, Jaxsynn’s death could have been caused by blunt force trauma to the head or swelling from drowning.
“What happened to these kids is evil,” Detective David Raschkow of the Billings Police Department stated during the trial, according to KRTV.
After appearing before Judge Jeanne Walker, Lana Marie Harasymczuk’s bond was set at $100,000. If she is released, she must wear a GPS monitoring device and avoid all contact with minors.
