From Deseret News archives:
Logan dad pleads guilty in child's death
Tot died from damage to his internal organs
Mychal Denny, 23, wept as he acknowledged in 1st District Court that he hit the toddler, Tyson Robertson Denny. The beating was so severe the child's internal organs were damaged.
Denny will be held in the Cache County Jail until sentencing Oct. 24. The second-degree felony carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
With Denny's guilty plea, Judge Thomas Willmore dismissed a separate felony count of child abuse.
Last month, police and the state Department of Child and Family Services received reports that Tyson was being abused. When officials went to the Denny home, they found the child with a tooth injury and bruises on his neck and face.
Denny was told to bring Tyson to Logan Regional Hospital later that afternoon for an examination. Denny did not show up at the hospital with his son. Instead, he fled to the Navajo Nation in Arizona.
On Aug. 23, Denny called 911 in southern Utah to report that his son was dead.
Cache County deputy attorney Don Linton said an autopsy showed that Tyson's death was caused by a blunt hit to the torso that tore his duodenum — the first section of the small intestine — and released toxins in his body.
"When they are released into the system, eventually it will cause a death like this one," Linton said.
When police detectives interviewed Denny, he said he was upset with his son, claiming the child was wetting the bed, Linton said.
"The defendant acknowledged that he became upset at the child and that he elbowed and punched the child in the mid-torso region," Linton said.
Mychal Denny's mother, Kim Denny, was in the courtroom Thursday.
"We weren't here for Mychal, we were here for Tyson," she said.
Kim Denny and her daughter Makisha Whitehead said they were happy that Mychal Denny pleaded guilty and hope he gets the maximum sentence.
"We had a concern that he would coward out and try to fight," Whitehead said.
A preliminary hearing for Denny's girlfriend, 25-year-old Christina John, will be held Sept. 20. She is charged with third-degree felony child abuse, a charge authorities say mostly stems from a failure to report incidents to authorities.
