Man Charged With Murder In Boy’s Death Autopsy Shows ‘Extreme, Prolonged Acts Of Brutality’

A man who admitted beating his girlfriend’s 20-month-old son to death was charged Friday with first-degree murder.

Kootenai County prosecutors say Ralph J. Reyes inflicted “extreme and prolonged acts of brutality” when he punched, slapped and hit Anthony Mitchell while baby-sitting him this week, according to a new criminal complaint.

Anthony died Tuesday from internal bleeding.

Reyes, 21, initially was charged with felony injury to a child, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors upgraded that Friday, contending Reyes’ abuse of the baby took place willfully over several hours.

Reyes now faces a minimum 10-year prison sentence if convicted and could get life in prison or even the death penalty.

That wouldn’t be penalty enough for some outraged Spirit Lake residents, who say the infant’s death has sickened their town.

“Anybody who could do that to a baby should die the same way,” said Sandy Faubion, owner of the Hog and Jog restaurant. “He (Reyes) deserves a long, slow death.”

Reyes, who is unemployed, was alone with Anthony on Tuesday at the Timber Lane Apartments where he lived with the boy’s mother - Anna Mitchell, 20. Friends said Mitchell attends school in Rathdrum to get her high school diploma.

Reyes told authorities that he punched Anthony numerous times in the abdomen, before finding a bowel movement in the child’s pants. Reyes then bathed the boy, and beat him some more, he told police.

Reyes went to the boy’s aunt, who lives in the same apartment complex, for help and she tried to revive Anthony. It was too late.

Autopsy results show the boy suffered head injuries, fractured ribs, a torn liver and bruises to his pancreas, bowel, heart and lung.

Since Reyes’ arrest, the town has spoken about little else.

“No one can tell me that an adult can beat on a child and not know the potential is there for him to die,” said neighbor Sean Nailen.

Angry townsfolk knew little about Reyes, an outsider with a history of violence who went to high school in Priest River and attended North Idaho College. He’d been in Spirit Lake only four months.

They struggle to understand how Mitchell, a well-known local woman, wound up living with a man who twice before faced battery charges - once for fighting with a girlfriend.

“She’s a nice girl,” Faubion said. “She must not have known.”

A waitress at Faubion’s restaurant said she saw Reyes treating Anthony roughly when Anna wasn’t around. She asked him to stop.

Residents said Reyes is nothing like the child’s father, who is in prison in southern Idaho, serving time on felony convictions for grand theft and burglary.

“He was a nice, compassionate kid - a hard worker,” said Faubion, who employed Albert Mitchell, 23, before his 1993 arrest. “He certainly wasn’t violent or anything. He just couldn’t stay out of trouble.”

He was released in 1994, but returned to prison within a year for violating his parole.

Mitchell has moved out of her apartment and across a courtyard to her mother’s apartment.

“She can’t even go in there,” said Nailen, who lives in the same complex.

He said he’s glad people are talking about the case.

“Unemployment is around, the holidays are coming, people get depressed,” he said. “Some of them take it out on their kids. They need to see graphically just how awful it is.”

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