The home in Sandy, Utah, where authorities say the child was hurt (KTVX/YouTube). Inset: Tyrel Belone (Facebook).
A man in Utah who beat his girlfriend's young daughter until she was "dead with a heartbeat" over frustrations with the child's potty training has pleaded guilty.
Tyrel Belone, 29, was charged with attempted aggravated murder, aggravated child abuse and child torture, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced.
The defendant has pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated murder as part of a plea agreement that dismissed the other two charges, according to regional NBC affiliate KSL.
The girl's mother, 30-year-old Amber Leary, was charged with the same felonies. She has not yet entered a plea in her case.
Declarations of probable cause obtained by Law&Crime state that on the morning of June 28, 2025, the then-3-year-old girl referred to as C.W. had urinated and defecated in the Sandy, Utah, home where the three of them had lived since May of that year. The city is located just south of Salt Lake City.
Belone was a nurse, while Leary was a certified nursing assistant.
According to Belone, just before Leary left for work around 5:30 a.m., Belone picked the girl up and threw her on a mattress, but she bounced and "ricocheted," and her head hit the wall. Belone "further stated that when he threw C.W., her body skimmed the bed, and it was 'like a rock skipping over water.'"
He reportedly then "threw" the child "face up," causing her to spin and "hit the wall with the right side of her head and face," the court documents add. Though the defendant said "she was breathing fine," she wasn't "really responding."
As Leary was about to head out the door, Belone told her "they needed to fix this," the probable cause declarations go on, and that he "had been telling her for weeks." Leary left, and Belone called his mother — a nurse practitioner — for help.
He believed his mother was the person who called emergency medical services.
Leary said she was on the way to work when she got a call from Belone, who reportedly stated, "You need to come. I think C.W. needs to go to the hospital." He provided no other details, according to the complaint, only saying, "Just come home."
Leary did so, and, upon finding her daughter, described her as "dead with a heartbeat."
Belone's mother apparently asked to see the toddler on FaceTime, and when she saw the child was unresponsive, she said, "You have to take her to the hospital," adding, "If you don't take her, you will both go to jail."
The Sandy Police Department responded to the house and found Leary standing outside. Authorities said she led them into the garage and then the basement, where they found the child lying on her back.
She did "not appear to be conscious or alert," but when an officer put his ear to her mouth, he could feel her breathing, as well as a pulse on her right wrist. However, she was unresponsive, with "no movement" in her eyes.
C.W. reportedly had "a greenish-blue color over her whole body." The officers wrote that "it appeared as though she was not getting enough oxygen." She was airlifted to a nearby hospital.
Belone said C.W. had recently "regressed" in her potty training and was "taking off her pants and defecating in the corner." He also maintained that she "had been combative, biting and scratching, and took a chunk" out of his nose a few days before.
Leary had apparently started a new job, and Belone had been the one caring for the child in the early morning hours. According to Leary, while Belone was "pleasant and nice" before June 2025, C.W.'s potty training was frustrating him.
Text messages included in the complaint provide details about his apparent state of mind in the days before C.W. was critically injured.
"I am going to murder her," he reportedly texted Leary at 7:25 a.m. on June 22, 2025. "I am going to crack her skull," he said three hours later, according to the complaint.
"I'm finished with her, we can't have a life together with her being like this, and now hearing her voice makes me want to kill her," another message apparently added. When Leary got home that night, C.W. had "her eyes bruised and swollen shut and a big bruise on the right side of her head."
Belone later "admitted to" previously "grabbing C.W. by the hips and giving her bruises a couple of times," as well as hitting her "pretty hard."
The defendants were arrested and charged. The child's current health status is unclear.
According to KSL, Leary's request to speak at Belone's sentencing on Dec. 2 was granted. She is expected to be brought from jail to the courthouse for the sentencing and then have her own hearing afterward.