Background: The 400 block of Manning Street in Kinston, North Carolina (Google Maps). Insets (from left to right): Joshua Stockton and Amy Gauthier (Lenoir County Jail).
A man and woman in eastern North Carolina are behind bars after authorities say the man beat his 3-year-old son with autism and the woman allowed the abuse to happen.
Joshua Stockton, 37, has been charged with four counts of assault with a deadly weapon with a minor present, child abuse, exposing a child to fire, assault by strangulation, and felony assault on an individual with disabilities, the Kinston Police Department announced. Amy Gauthier, 40, was charged with three counts of felony aiding and abetting and five counts of misdemeanor aiding and abetting.
The investigation that ended up bringing the charges began on Thursday at a home on the 400 block of Manning Street in Kinston, a city of about 20,000 people located some 70 miles from the Atlantic Coast. Gauthier and her "juvenile son" got into a "dispute" regarding a cellphone, police said.
"Officers determined the dispute stemmed from the juvenile possessing video evidence depicting the abuse of a 3-year-old child" by Stockton, the police department continued. Police were called to the home, and they arrived at about 6:35 p.m.
The minor showed officers the video, "which contained graphic content documenting the abuse," the law enforcement agency went on. Court records reviewed by Law&Crime detail the alleged nature of the crimes.
Stockton reportedly sought to change his 3-year-old son's soiled diaper and was working on "restraining" him to do so. He "could be seen [bearing] his body weight on the child, then placing his right hand on the small of the back and taking his left hand covering the mouth and nose, then picking up the child and forcefully slamming the child onto the mattress and holding his hand over the mouth and nose to prevent the child from screaming," a magistrate's order states.
"Mr. Stockton is then seen removing his left hand and raising his right hand above his head and bringing his hand down with force across the face of the child with enough force to depress the head of the child several inches into the mattress," the document goes on. The police department said that "due to the nature of the evidence," they "immediately expanded" their investigation.
The apparent attack caused bruising across the face, neck, and legs of the young child, authorities added, with visible ligature marks "by strangulation placing hands over the mouth and nose of the victim."
The court document noted that Stockton was "outweighing the victim by several hundred pounds" and, on the day in question, locked the toddler into a room by "boarding the top half of the doorway with ply board and using a locking gate for the bottom half of the doorway to prevent anyone from entering or exiting without key to lock."
Authorities praised the older boy for contacting authorities about the alleged abuse.
It is unclear whether the 3-year-old child was also Gauthier's and whether the older boy was Stockton's.
The Kinston Police Department contacted the North Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS), and when DSS workers arrived, they took custody of the five children under the couple's care. Stockton and Gauthier were arrested.
Stockton is being held in the Lenoir County jail under a $1 million bond, while Gauthier is jailed under a $100,000 bond. After appearing in court on Friday, they are both set to return on Jan. 30.
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