How a judge decided not to give Dylan Castimore life for killing his 8-week-old
Editor’s note: This story is graphic in nature. Reader discretion is advised.The story also mentions mental health issues or suicide. If you need help or know someone who does, please call 988, the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available for 24/7, free and confidential support. If you're in danger, call 911 or the South Dakota Domestic Violence Hotline 1.800.430.SAFE (7233).
Nine pounds, 5 ounces.
That's how much Daxton Castimore weighed when he was killed by his father, Dylan Castimore, in November 2021 at an apartment Dylan shared with Daxton's mother, Crissy Gregory, in Sioux Falls at the time.
The two were young. He, 22, and she, 18. He, a man who experienced mental health issues, abuse in foster care and had a 10th grade education, and she, a runaway from a tumultuous home life and struggles of her own.
Those were a few of the factors Dylan's defense attorneys, Traci Smith, Kylie Beck and John O’Malley, the IV, wanted Second Circuit Court Judge Camela Theeler to take into consideration before handing down her sentence Friday in the case.
Dylan, now 24, was sentenced by Theeler to 100 years with 10 years suspended for manslaughter Friday, after two days of testimony.
Dylan pleaded guilty in February to first degree manslaughter and abuse or cruelty to a minor, lesser charges from his initial ones, which included first degree murder and aggravated battery of an infant. The case once faced the argument of the death penalty before the plea, one of two or three capital punishment cases in the area within the last four years.
The judge did not issue a sentence for the child abuse charge. Castimore is not allowed to have contact with Daxton's mother, family, or any children younger than 10 for the entire time he is behind bars. He also had 871 days credited to him for time served at the Minnehaha County Jail since his arrest.
He’s expected to serve a total of at least 88 years at the South Dakota State Penitentiary, starting immediately.
But, as both sides argued, at stake was whether Dylan should have the option to eventually be released and rehabilitated back into the community despite being past a point of mid-life 65 years from now (the mandatory minimum sentence for his plea deal) or whether he should be behind bars until death.
The moment’s been nearly three years in the making, since Dylan was arrested Nov. 30, 2021, three days after Daxton died at the apartment in the 3400 block of North Fourth Avenue.
The case wasn’t going to a jury, which was one of the reasons Theeler said the sentencing process was expected to last two days, along with new evidence to be presented by prosecutors that the defense had a right to cross-examine.
Theeler, though, would be the final determination of Dylan’s character at large, and would weigh how to hand down that sentence.
More: 'Something horrifice happened': Detective describes scene in day one of Dylan Castimore sentencing
Day one focused on the details of what happened when Daxton died on Nov. 27, 2021, and actions taken by Dylan and first responders the moments before and after Daxton stopped breathing. Day two focused on Dylan as a person, examining his history, mental state and intellectual integrity.
"I snapped," Dylan said before closing statements, as part of his last words to the court, explaining his actions.
He was stressed at the time as a new parent in mental health court and on probation, he said.
Prosecutors with the Minnehaha County State's Attorney's office argued differently, stating Dylan's habitual criminal history and intellectual and manipulative responses during the investigation showed he was aware of his actions against Daxton that day.
"His dad is the one inflicting pain," prosecutor Meghan McCauley said as part of her closing arguments. "His dad is the one who took his life."
There was no self-defense.Daxton was helpless."The court would be hard pressed to find a case more deserving of life than this one," McCauley argued.
'It wasn't a threat. It was a promise.'
But before Theeler heard either side's closing arguments, the state called its last witness of six: Gregory.
Gregory was 16 at the time she met Dylan, and the two had dated for roughly two years before Daxton arrived, she said. As she took the stand, prosecutors asked her to recall the details for their relationship, including:
How she came to live with his family for a time after leaving a domestic violence situation with her parents in Georgia, with the help of Dylan and his foster mother
How the family helped with rent and food when the two eventually moved out into their own apartment
How arguments in the house with Dylan often involved him "taking it out on the cat," by tossing it or squeezing it, or taking it out on "his mother or his brother"
At one point, police became involved when Dylan broke a door and a coffee machine during a dispute with his mother. Gregor testified she tried to intervene by telling him to stop, but he threw her phone and backed her into a corner before he left the house. He only returned at the behest of his mother, she said.
Gregor wanted to leave when she found out she was pregnant, but the physical abuse had escalated to Dylan pulling her hair or putting hands around her throat, she said. He often told her she was "crazy," and at one point, threatened to take away the baby, a moment she only discovered in text messages between him and a sibling, she said.
And on one account, she recalled how Dylan drove a vehicle toward her at seven months pregnant, only to swerve and miss her while she was walking and then demand she get in the vehicle or be dragged in.
“It wasn’t a threat,” Gregory testified. “It was a promise.”
More: Sioux Falls father of 8-week-old baby pleads 'not guilty' to son's death
As she described the day Daxton was born, she recalled the relationship wasn’t always bad. There were pictures of family gatherings, first-born memories and cuddles – supportive moments. Family brought brownies and ice cream while she was in labor. Dylan’s mother stayed in the room as Gregory’s body contracted in a bath of warm water. And Dylan, who wasn’t in the room much during delivery until the epidural, was observant and willing to learn as nurses taught him how to give Daxton his first bath and change those first diapers.
There was “immense joy,” the moment Daxton was laid on Gregory’s chest after his birth, she said. Her baby’s name was a combination of the two names both sides of the family wanted, Daniel and Ashton.
In the weeks after, the relationship deteriorated again.
“I became distant,” she said. “My entire focus became Daxton.”
And Dylan was sometimes sweet about fatherhood, while other times, he acted as though it was a chore, she said.
They often fought about sex and work, or lack thereof, given Dylan was a convicted felon and she had not had a job toward the end of her pregnancy. And when she wouldn’t give him sex, he “pinned me down and he’d take it,” she testified, adding she didn’t report the abusive incidents to police, but did report them to friends, to his mother and to his siblings.
He hit her in the face once, she said. And it was the one time she said she witnessed Dylan express violence toward her son prior to his death.
Though it’s unclear why, Dylan sat Daxton down too hard in his baby swing and called him a “b—ch,” Gregory recalled on the stand. When she went to confront him and protect Daxton, he hit her with an open palm to her face, she said.
'Daxton still is everything'
But there was no driving away to get away. She also didn’t have a license, and never had the opportunity to learn as a teen, she said. Dylan tried to teach her once, but he did it while he was drunk and yelled at her for poorly backing up in a college parking lot. She tried to leave then by exiting the vehicle, but he pulled her back in, and she hit her head on the center console, she stated.
Five days before Daxton’s death, and the day Gregory started a new job at a restaurant at The Empire Mall, Gregory received a call from Dylan that started to tip the scales.
Dylan had taken Gregory to the mall for orientation, which was expected to last 30 minutes. She asked him to stay and walk the mall with Daxton, bottles and diapers in hand, so they could all return home together when she was done and save a trip.
Dylan, though, didn’t want to be at the mall with a screaming child, she said. He returned home. Ten minutes before orientation ended, Dylan called to tell her their cat had jumped on Daxton’s face after being spooked by an apartment dog. He had a bruise around his eye and scratches on his body, Gregory said Dylan told her.
He picked Gregory up from the mall, Daxton in his car seat, and they drove to the ER with Gregory sitting beside Daxton the whole way – something she did regularly because she never wanted to sit anywhere else in a vehicle once he was born, she said.
The moment medical providers told her Daxton was OK, a wave of relief washed over, she said. But then medical personnel had to explain the incident forced them to call child protective services. The story given about the cat didn’t line up with Daxton’s black eye.
Gregory, confused by the statement, struggled to believe what she was hearing. The cat was usually gentle and didn’t often interact with Daxton, and she knew the dog Dylan was referring to directly, she said.
“[The thought of] anyone striking a baby is really hard to believe,” she said.
Detectives would later learn through video analysis of cameras at the apartment building and Daxton’s autopsy, that no such evidence of the cat being spooked by a dog existed and Daxton also had a skull fracture difficult to see otherwise near his eyebrow. And CPS never showed, though it’s unclear why.
Dr. Kenneth Snell, the Minnehaha County coroner who performed the autopsy, testified Thursday the injury was from blunt force trauma that either occurred around the same time as a cat possibly jumping on the baby or the trauma was inflicted. But it was difficult to say which happened because skull fractures can’t be dated based on the way they heal.
Daxton would die less than a week later after Dylan dropped Gregory off at work, but not before she told Daxton she loved him and she’d see him again in a few hours as she climbed out of the car, she said.
The next time she would see Daxton would be when she saw his legs on a medical bed from the door of a patient room at Avera Health in Sioux Falls, as nurses tried to keep his heart beating and get his breath to return.
She collapsed then, she said, just has she had at work when she got the call from Dylan stating, “Daxton’s not breathing.”
An officer drove her to the hospital. She had no other way there.
More: Sioux Falls father who allegedly killed 8-week-old son indicted on more charges
But Daxton wouldn’t recover. And the next time she’d see him fully was a couple days after his funeral, she said.
He wouldn’t crawl or walk or say his first words.
He wouldn’t get a first birthday, a graduation or a relationship and child of his own years down the line.
“Daxton was everything,” she said, adding the grief has forced her to weigh taking her own life at times. “Daxton still is everything.”
Gregory briefly and vaguely recalled telling the detective, “(Dylan) could have paid more attention,” at the hospital, but she didn’t want to believe someone could hurt a child the way Daxton had been hurt, she testified.
All the moments she left her son alone ran through her head after his death.
She didn’t want to believe the autopsy that showed multiple large skull fractures and contusions to his body, and fractures to ribs from injuries seven to 10 days prior, she said. Believing the injuries may have been tied to CPR or medical intervention was easier.
Only after she broke up with Dylan and then talked with the Sioux Falls detective on the case the first time, did the gravity sink in, she said. After that, she said stayed with friends until she found her own apartment.
“My son didn’t get to live,” she said on the stand. “I don’t think it’s fair he gets to.”
The only choice, she said, would be for Dylan to get life in prison.
'There are no monsters here'
The defense argued to discredit parts of Gregory’s testimony, emphasizing the happier moments in the relationship, and pointing to the fact that Gregory continued to stay with Dylan’s family throughout and a bit after Daxton’s death.
Prosecutors countered by saying victims of abuse often stay because they hold on to the good times, hoping the relationship will get better.
They also pointed toward Dylan’s efforts to care for Daxton through an app that helped the two monitor his feedings and diaper changes, and that he had been able to hold a job prior to them sharing an apartment.
They emphasized the baby had supplies to be cared for, like clothes, a baby tub, a changing table and wipe warmer inside the apartment. They mentioned Dylan showed remorse during the 911 call he made to police the day Daxton died and in moments afterward, and recalled that Dylan was attending mental health court while on probation for prior crimes in attempts to show he was trying to get his life under control.
And they shared how Gregory told medical staff she did not have any concern for her own safety, or any concerns Daxton was being abused, when he was treated for the black eye. Instead, they pointed to a moment a week to two weeks before his death, when Gregory tripped while holding Daxton as she climbed the stairs to their apartment, casting doubt as to whether the rib fractures not caused by CPR could have happened then.
Gregory emphasized Daxton’s body never hit anything and she cradled him close during the incident to prevent that. And Snell’s autopsy showed the fractures could only be caused by blunt force trauma, which was not enough to be something done during a fall as described by Gregory.
Contact between Gregory and Dylan didn’t stop until the end of 2022 or January 2023, Dylan’s attorneys illustrated.
“No matter what my sentence, I still have to live with myself,” Dylan said as part of his last statements to the court.
He, and his attorneys, tried to argue that 65 years alone was more than fitting, given sentences for other caregivers or daycare providers who are overwhelmed and snap in a way that results in death are often sentenced to less time.
They urged the judge to not base her sentence solely on emotion and said a life sentence would be a “vengeance” sentencing, when he’s already “paying the ultimate price” by living with the fact he took the life of his son.
“There are no monsters here,” Minnehaha County’s Chief Public Defender Traci Smith argued.
At least with the mandated minimum, Dylan could have hope: hope to get his GED, hope to complete more classes like the 30 certificates he’s earned during his time at the Minnehaha County Jail and hope to mature emotionally and intellectually.
Giving Dylan life would take that away, Smith argued.
“I’ll forever remember my failure as a father,” he stated to the court, adding he has a tattoo of his son’s astrological sign as a constant reminder and Daxton’s name carved in his arm, both actions he took after he was booked into jail.
Daxton's death shouldn't be for nothing, prosecutor says
But the state argued for the judge to look beyond the surface of the incident to what was underneath, the moments of manipulation and foreshadowing toward violence that existed and still exist today.
They pointed toward each of the three assault cases he was convicted of between 2018 and 2021 and two others that were dismissed, according to court documents. The incidents involved two ex-girlfriends and his own mother and the door.
One of the incidents was mentioned in a March 2024 jail call with his mother, when Dylan said he wished he would have beaten his ex-girlfriend worse than he had because she’d wind up dead by another boyfriend otherwise.
And another, prosecutors said, played out openly on a 911 call, with Dylan mentioning there would be a “blood bath.”
Prosecutors argued evaluations by experts showed he was at high risk to reoffend, and that the call for Dylan’s life sentence was based on “much more than convictions.”
He had a habit of misdirecting police, prosecutors argued, from the moment he said Daxton stopped breathing after allegedly choking on formula the day he died, to two or three other stories, until he admitted some responsibility for some of the injuries.
He often saw himself as the victim in his own story, shifting blame elsewhere for his own actions, the attorneys stated. He even made up not one, but two instances, of other children he fathered. The two other children, by all accounts from detectives and prosecutors, did not exist. And he managed to "sell the lie" of the cat jumping on to Daxton’s face, they said.
Dylan’s admissions are often down-played or self-serving, McCauley said.
“If someone could fabricate babies, I wouldn’t believe a word,” she said.
They then listed his previous victims’ names: the two ex-girlfriends, his mother and Gregory. They asked: Aren’t these names enough or does the court want to risk exposing his rage to more potential victims?
Daxton’s death didn’t happen in an instant. It happened across a 20-minute period in that apartment, with 7 minutes since the last moment Daxton cried to the moment Dylan called police, McCauley reminded the court.
The extent of injuries to Daxton were equal to that sign of an infant ejected from a motor vehicle scene, Snell testified Thursday and McCauley reminded the court Friday. If Dylan had had the courage, knowing he was struggling, he should have called CPS himself and asked for help, prosecutors said.
“Daxton wasn’t the first victim,” she said. “I hope he’s the last.”
The prosecutor urged the judge to give a sentence that could be a symbol of healing and a statement to the community that Sioux Falls would not accept or tolerate such violence. The baby's death should not be for nothing, she cried.
“Daxton’s voice should be the loudest in this room,” McCauley said.
'He was a beautiful child'
As Theeler laid out all she considered in her ruling, she weighed everything from medical and mental health reports to substance abuse and intellectual reports, to previous convictions, supportive family letters and victim impact letters (some of which included letters from first responders, nurses and a detective – an unusual action taken by professionals who see trauma on a regular basis, Theeler said).
She weighed Dylan’s risk to reoffend, how he hid information from police and how he finally told police after sharing different stories, that he dropped Daxton, squeezed him, slapped him and could feel the cracking in his ribs.
She weighed how in the two or three days after his death, someone – maybe Dylan – searched online through his phone to find out how long it takes to get a search warrant.
And she accounted for the fact that he wasn’t showing any signs of a mental health issue or mental break at the time of Daxton’s death, as well as how a month before sentencing Dylan was still indicating violence toward others.
“I don’t believe the evidence supports those arguments (of panic or snapping),” Theeler told the court.
Dylan made references of feeling better after he came clean to detectives, but Theeler said she had to weigh the unknowns as well. That included:
What actually happened in the apartment
The fact that it was unclear what CPR technique was used by Dylan during attempts to resuscitate his son, be it child appropriate as instructed by police dispatchers or adult-like compressions
And the lack of clarity of the three stories he gave investigators prior to admission
She also emphasized she knew both sides of this case understood the gravity of the crime, adding none of what Dylan had been through, and no mental health diagnosis at this point, justified what happened to Daxton.
Dylan had multiple opportunities to stay out of the South Dakota State Penitentiary prior to this crime, she said as she referenced probation, life classes and mental health court he was part of prior.
Even taking out the medical injuries – more broken ribs and a broken clavicle − tied to trying to save Daxton, the baby’s cause of death was still traumatic, Theeler said as she talked through her decision.
She addressed Gregory, who sat front row behind prosecutors.
“He was a beautiful child,” Theeler said.
And she addressed Dylan.
“You caused horrific injuries to him,” she said, adding he failed as the protector of the child. “… You aren’t the victim in this case.”
The only person she said told the full truth, though, was Daxton, through the contusions displayed on his body.
“Daxton’s little broken body was part of a much larger story,” than what Dylan gave police, she said.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Dylan Castimore gets 88 years in prison for killing his 8-week-old, judge rules
