FRIDLEY, Minn. – A 24-year-old Fridley man was sentenced Monday to more than 25 years in prison for the death of his child son early last year.
Aaron Rathke was convicted of manslaughter in May.
According to court documents, Rathke brought his child, Kaiden Rathke, to the Fridley Police Department on March 1, 2023, after the boy stopped breathing. The boy had no pulse and later died in hospital.
Rathke told police he came home from work and was changing his child’s diaper when he started vomiting and stopped breathing. Rathke said he then pushed on his baby’s chest but failed to get him breathing again.
Documents show Rathke said the child’s mother called him earlier in the day to say his eyes had rolled back into his head and he had stopped breathing. Rathke said when his girlfriend pushed on the baby’s chest, he started breathing again.
He said he didn’t call an ambulance because there had been previous incidents with the baby where they could “bring him back.” He added that sometimes the baby “forgot to breathe.”
A few days later, he gave another statement to police, saying he sometimes hugged his child “a little too hard,” but denied ever dropping or hitting the baby against anything.
The child’s mother said in a statement that the baby had stopped breathing around noon that day. When she sat up and pressed his chest, he started breathing again.
In August, the child’s mother told police that Rathke had killed their child. In late September, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner determined that the baby’s cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries, and the cause of death was homicide.
In October, the child’s mother told police she was initially afraid to come forward because Rathke was abusing her, the complaint said. She said Rathke would put their child to sleep by putting pressure on his throat, causing him to pass out. She added that she saw Rathke “strangle” their baby when he was three months old
Rathke was sentenced to 306 months in prison with credit for 256 days for time served.
For anonymous, confidential help, people can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224.
WCCO personnel
