Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Ohio Dad Locked Up For Baby Pit Bull Killing

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Blake Bates has learned his sentence for his pit bull mix, Kilo, attacking and killing his six-month-old son, Royal, in April 2024. Bates had been warned by family members that the dog was aggressive and not fit to be around children. He'd also been cited after the dog tried to attack a child a year before Royal died. Bates was also sentenced on an escape charge and a strangulation charge involving Royal's mother, Alyssa Smith. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the hearing and the new videos released in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code CRIMEFIX at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: http://incogni.com/crimefixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Producer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Is there history of this dog being aggressive or no? That's what we didn't understand. Everything was fine. I haven't had really promised with it. That's video of Blake Bates never seen before by the public until now, as he's questioned about the dog Kilo that killed his baby boy.

Plus, Hey, come out now! Give me your hand! I'll tell you why Blake Bates was hiding in that garage, and I'll take you to his sentencing for the death of his son and a number of other charges. The goal today was to achieve some measure of justice for baby royal, and I think that we did that with the sentence that his father received.

If you think the stories that I cover here on crime fix are scary, wait until you hear what's happening with your personal data online. Your name, your phone number, even your address. It's all floating around out there on the internet for data brokers to sell or for scammers to steal. Our sponsor, Incogni, will find which data brokers have your info and demand that they remove it. When I signed up, they found more than 50 brokers with my data, and within days, it started disappearing. Setup takes just minutes, create an account, authorizing Cogni to act for you, and they do the rest. And with their new unlimited plans custom removals feature,

you can submit custom links where your data shows up and a team of privacy experts will remove it for you. So if you care about your online safety and you should, take your data back with incogny use code crime fix for an extra 60% off an annual plan. Blake Bates is going to prison for the death of his six-month-old baby and for strangling Royale's mother. I've covered this case for you many, many times here on crime fix.

Baby Royal was killed by the family's pit bull mix, Keelow, on April 28th, 2024. It's an absolutely tragic case. Royal was a cute little baby laying on the couch of his parents' home in Marion, Ohio when he rolled off the couch and Keelow pounced. Prosecutors said the only person in the room at the time with Royal was his older sister, who was only seven. The scene that unfolded was absolute chaos as police and EMTs raced to the home hoping to save baby Royal. Take them inside. Take them inside. I know, I know, I know.

I don't. Where's my son? Hey, I'm calling your dad right now. Okay? Can I come in, please? Hey. You want to have a ball in here? Hey.

I'm sorry. Do you have a corner? take you out there. I can take you if you don't have a call. I don't want to call. I don't have to pass. Okay. Okay. I'll be careful. I need. I need. I need it. I. I need. I. This is a I I know I know you are this is the first time he's done it like this is not but he's got to go well obviously he this is better fucking make it are you guys mom and dad yes okay is it just you guys

here it was okay we're over there he's okay yes marian police officer stood by trying to get information about what happened some of them seemed a little stunned by the fact that a dog had ripped open a baby skull are you guys going to go off to the hospital. Yes, I, yes. How are you getting there? I will drive, but I kind of, right. Like, I want to get smart. Right. And then I thought he thought it was a toy or something, and our dog just. What kind of dog is it? And it's a great day in a pit and something else mixed. Like Bates, he was upset. Alyssa Smith, despite what was going on, seemed relatively calm. what you mean to do anything here the dogs put up and as good as he can be right yeah okay

how many dogs do you guys have um four because they end up having a litter and we just sold nine of the 12 when we're still trying to get rid of the other three yeah yeah just uh just the one grown dog though uh uh yeah got you what was that dog's name Now, once the pair arrived at the hospital, they were notified that Royal didn't make it. Nothing could be done. I had him on the couch and he just rolled off the couch and I told my daughter to hurry up and grab him. I was trying to like, because I thought I had the dresser pulled. And when I went to step, he got around me.

And I, when I yelled, he thought something was, I guess I don't, I don't know. And I went to take him and that's, you just grab him. Okay. So I'm not going to make you feel out a bunch of information. I just need one of you guys to sign the dog over and I'm taking it. That's your dog. I'm sure you don't want it back, you know, ashes or anything like that. It was my dog.

I already know you're interviewing them. You're going to start hanging me now because it's my dog and there's like, I already see it. Because it's... I get it. That's... Is there, how many dogs are in home? There's four. But we're trying to find the puppies.

So there's two puppies and two adult dogs? There's three puppies. It's their puppies. Yeah. So I have my female. have my female that I've had for five years. She's my emotional support shop. And then we got together and he,

and then they ended up having nine puppies and we got rid of all of them but three. So you have five in the house? Yeah, yeah, okay. Because they're female. Yeah, I don't know how it would hear that. Right, but. The male is the one that did, okay.

Yes, yes. The other ones we're trying to actually help. Where's the dog at, do you know? He's, he's in the backyard and there's a little fenced area. We have for them now. Okay. Yeah, but before we're trying to help me and trying to attack him, but it was just chaos now.

I'm so good. Have you guys talked to heaven yet? I just tried to call. I'm trying to get me right first before, because she deserves a face of face. Children's services already I'm just, I'm just, you're okay. You're okay. You're okay.

We did everything we... No, bro. I've seen he's getting angry and being like that. I should have rid of him over there or not. I feel like I'm... I don't know. Oh. Don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it, dude, I'll do all that. I just need you to sign. I just need you to sign. Yep, you did it. That's all I need. What's the dog's name? Kelo. For nearly a year, police and prosecutors investigated.

They spoke with family members of Bates and Smith. The couple was charged with involuntary manslaughter and child endangering in connection to Royal's death. Alyssa Smith folded first and pleaded guilty to child endangering and agreed to testify against Blake Bates at his trial. She was sentenced to three years in prison earlier this month. Then Blake Bates decided to plead guilty. But he faced more charges than just the charges related to Royal's death. More on that in a moment. But first, assistant prosecutor Mark Weaver talked about how Blake Bates knew Keelow was aggressive and allowed him around Royal and

other children anyway. One of the questions, of course, is whether the defendant knew, that this dog had a history of being aggressive, because if we did, that makes the culpability much more serious. What you're seeing now is body cam footage from a jail interview with one of the investigators in this case with the defendant, who just because of the angle of the city, we can see the left hat, the side of the defendant was clearly the defendant. And the question that's being asked is whether or not there was a history of this dog,

it was called Keila, a full mix, Whether there's a history of this dog being aggressive, and I'll make sure we can find because this is what the defendant said. Was there a history of this dog being aggressive, or no, it actually didn't understand. Everything was fine, haven't had really problems with it? With the dog aggressive, no. Now, I haven't had problems with it. We didn't understand.

That's the story that the defendant gave to this. investigator. Then the investigator asked a question about whether his grandmother had said, you know, did your grandmother tell you there was a problem with this dog around children? The investigator had reason to believe that that had happened, but the question was put directly to the defendant, and you'll see his answer. How about your, is Audrey, that's your grandma? Okay. I talked to her, and she said that she's prior to this incident, she'd been begging you guys get rid of the dog for a long time because it was aggressive, and she,

She just don't like the dog because it barks when people come at the door. She said that there had been several incidents prior to where it had tried to bite you. I think the word she used was sniffed at you. Slipped at me? Yeah. I don't know about that. You don't remember anything like that? No.

Okay. No. She's kind of overdramatic of the dog. She's never like dogs. She's just not dog person. Yeah. She's not a dog great. Okay.

That measured answer from Blake Bates about his grandmother being dramatic about Kelo's aggressive behavior stood in stark contrast to what he said. what he said in the moments after Kilo attacked Royal in 2024 when he openly admitted that the dog had been a problem. The county is fine. I went to picking up. Yes. He's the bottom of him. It is not true.

He's on his knees crying, screaming out, it's my fault. That's not the only thing, Judge. He is, look, look, listen to me. We should, it's hard to understand on a play it several times. I believe the transfer of exactly. We should have gotten rid of him a long time ago. This, of course, suggests that he's acknowledging in an excited utterance, which, as you know, judge is more credible than other things said when you've had time to prepare what you're

going to say to investigators. He's saying something that he should have gotten rid of a long time ago. Now, if the charges Blake Bates faced involving Royal's death were not bad enough, a defenseless baby killed by an aggressive dog, there's more. Blake Bates apparently has a violent streak. Last January, Bates strangled Alyssa Smith. This photo was taken of her neck. An officer spoke with Smith outside of the couple's home, where Royal had been killed months earlier.

So I left. I shouldn't have to leave my home, but I did to try to solve all this. I come home today, he wouldn't leave me alone and get going and going and going. They took my phone. I did go after him. I said, you know what, that's my phone. You know, I use it for work like I need my phone. He swears up and down.

I was cheating on him. Blah, blah, blah. He has insecurities, whatever, whatever. My grandma calls me, I answer it. I tell him, just, you know, just go. Before it gets worse, just freaking leave. So I was on the phone with my grandma. He ended up choking me up.

He ended up throwing me on the freaking clothes in there. He looked up for me. I don't know if there's anything, but he did. It was just for a quick second. Then he freaking slammed me on the ground and everything else. My grandma basically hung up with me and called you guys. Okay. You said he was choking.

you up. Did it restrict your airway in any? Yes. It did. Like it changed the pattern of your breathing. Yes. And this isn't the first one. This is just the first time that I'm fed up with it and I'm done. Okay. And then who is V to you? He is actually, we did have a son together and our son passed away. I'm sorry about that. For a dog attack. Stangulation, it's very serious. It's considered a predictor of murder and domestic violence homicides. That day, police found Blake Bates hiding in a garage. Hey, come out now. Show me your hands. Opie!

Show me your hands! Come out! Come out now. I'm coming out. I'm coming out. Kick your hands up or you will get tased. Do you understand? Yes, sir.

Come out with your hands up. You are under arrest. Okay. Do not reach for anything. Get up slowly. I'm trying. Get up slowly. Get up slowly.

Put your hands up. Hands on your head. Okay. Hands on your head. On your head. Step over towards me. Okay. On your head.

All right, hands be on the rack. Pull together. Give me that light. All right. So, Mom, we have a warning, but I will charge a one. Come on, we have 21. Did you not hear our commands? Huh?

No, I'm just freaking out, dude. What are you freaking out about? The video is so unbelievable. The police got Blake Bates out of that cluttered garage, and I still can't believe he was hiding in there. They took him to the jail. But it doesn't seem like he liked it very much there, because guess what? He tried to escape. The defendant is in custody, and he's being arraigned or some sort of judicial proceeding.

for this matter over in the city building, which his honor knows that there's a municipal court. There is, I'm now putting him on the screen, the footage from the security cameras where he had a couple of other prisoners are coming down the steps from the municipal court. You're going to see them come down here in a moment in the top right. The first prisoner is the defendant, and he's ahead of the other defendants, and he's ahead of the deputy or the officer who's responsible for watching him and moving them back to what you're being held. You may be familiar with the layout judge. We're now moving down to the ground floor of the police station. There's a back door there. The first person out the back

door right there is the defendant. That's the center one. And then on the right-hand side judge is the shot of the parking lot just outside the back door of that building. I'm going to zoom in now in this next frame. Here goes the defendant. Off he goes. Running, escaping from custody. This is not a hearing about whether it's a smart thing to run in an orange jumpsuit while shackled at your waist off into the snowy parts of the city of Marion. But all of the officers that were put on the media alert to go search for him. He's now out amongst the population of the city of Marion, obviously desperate, obviously not making rational decisions, no idea what he's going to do to the people they encounter. It was just four days after Blake Bates' arrest on that strangulation charge. It was January 24th.

inmates were being taken to court. They were walking down the steps to court, and Blake walked down the steps and right out of the courthouse doors. You can see Blake Bates run past a surveillance camera in handcuffs, a jacket over his shoulders. He wasn't on the run all that long, though. The cops caught up with him pretty quickly. I got him here. I got it. Get on the ground. Get on the ground. Get on your stomach. I got him on noon. I got on. Stay right there. Stay right there.

Three and seven, three and it's fantastic. Thanks. Two. Anybody to get a right back for us. I just got a use of force for flint my gun at him. I don't know if I'm a lot of days. A few months later, came the charges for Royal's horrific death. Keelow the dog had been euthanized after being captured the day he killed Royal.

Keelow. What are you going to go in this garage? Come here. Kilo, come here. Come here. Kilo, come here. Come here. I'ma-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h.

Kilo! Kilo! Kilo! Kelo! I love! I love it. There we are. There we are.

Mark Weaver also showed jail emails that Mark Weaver also showed jail emails that Blake Bates and Alyssa Smith were communicating when they weren't supposed to be doing so while both were facing charges in Royals' death. It's all the needs. It is what it is. I mean to lie about nothing.

So you're confirming these. are messages between you and Alyssa Smith, correct? Yeah. Okay. So you were using Zachary Schoffner's email to contact Alyssa, correct? Okay. And then you use Matthew Henderson to use him to create a three-way call with you and Alyssa, correct?

That's with Jessica. The two? Jessica. What do you mean? I've been talking just growing up Jessica. Matt. Okay. Have you just him to speak with Alyssa over the phone? That was a long time ago. A long time ago? Not last night or early this morning? You sure? Yeah, I did. You did?

No, I don't know who. I need you. I did. So this is you and Alyssa? Yes. Okay. Okay. So, obviously, you know there's a protection order between the two of you, right? Looks like you were served back in January on the protection order. Okay? You do have one prior protection order violation, which makes this one a felony. Okay. So obviously you're going to be charged for that. Do you know what degree? How many of it is? Like FI.Royle's aunt, Aubrey Smith, she spoke and she said that Royal would have just celebrated his second birthday had Blake and Alyssa simply just gotten rid of Keelow. Everyone keeps saying it was a tragic accident, but it was far from that. Yes, it was an extremely tragic event, but it was not an accident. It was an incident. It cannot be

considered an accident when Blake and Alyssa both knew how dangerous Keelow was and yet still chose to keep him in the house and around the two innocent and defenseless children in the home. Blake and Alyssa both knew that Kila was aggressive or whatever term you want to use, but yet still chose to keep him in the home and around the children. They both had more than enough warnings to get rid of the dog, but yet still chose to keep him, and sadly, my sweet boy lost his life due to that. Royal tragically lost his life, and his big sister had to watch the incident take place because of Alyssa and Blake's negligence.

Multiple people, including myself, Blake's grandmother, and Blake's mother, offered to help get rid of Kilo, but yet they said, still chose to keep him. We all told them that it was not safe to have Royal around such a dangerous dog, but yet they chose not to listen, and now my sweet boy is gone forever because they chose to keep a dog over protecting the children in the home. Blake may have shown a little more emotion and remorse than Alyssa, but I still do not think he was truly mourning the loss of his son. After Royal passed away, Blake continued to be reckless and continue on with his life

as if nothing had ever happened. Him and Alyssa went about their lives as if their son had not just died. I'm not saying that he didn't mourn his son, but I do feel that he has shown no remorse for the incident that took place. Then it was time for Blake Bates's lawyer to read a statement that he had written because he was too emotional to read it himself. It was just another normal day, and I was doing stuff around the house, and I went down to the basement to look for some things that were still boxed up. We had just moved into the new house and had only been there a month, maybe a little longer. And I had just left the living room with my son, his mother and my stepdaughter all there together. I told his mother I was going down to the

basement and then I would be back up when I found what I was looking for. I was down there for 15 minutes max and all of a sudden there was screaming upstairs and I ran up there as fast as I could and found his mom trying to tug him from the dog so I grabbed the dog's mouth and cried it open. Then she takes the baby out front and I lock the dog out back and call 911. I still don't know what really happened to cause this to happen. His mother was, his mother has told three different stories as to what went down. Still, I blame myself for owning the dog and I still take my I still take responsibility for this happening. I'm his father and it's my job to keep something like this from happening. With that being said, his mother was there and it all happened and I was not

and that's where I messed up. It is haunted me every day since and I will for the rest of my life. It eats at me knowing that I'll never see my baby boy walk, talk, or grow up and experience anything like that job. And Bates' other lawyer argued on his behalf. Your Honor, first and foremost is the fact that my client lost his son. And I think that plays very much into what the state wants to talk about as far as statements made about this dark. I think that any parent when faced with the situation that Mr. Bates faced, that day the loss of the son, he as a parent acknowledged, I'm a parent, I take responsibility for it. I don't think it's the responsibility to say that I had a vicious dog, but that I had the responsibility to protect my child.

I think it's also critical in the court sentencing of my client that the facts of that day are very clear, and that is my client was with the mother of this child and the child. He then left the child in the company and in the protection of mother to go downstairs. They recently moved into this residence, he was downstairs cleaning out boxes. When he left, the child was with mother as a form of protection. My understanding is that mother has given three different versions of what took place during this actual confrontation between the child and the dog, whether mother was even present, this is not something that my client had any control over in the incident involved. And the lawyer offered an

explanation for the dog's name, Keelow. I think also the state in their sentencing memorandum wants to make the allegation that the dog's name, Keelow, implies some sort of drug usage by my client. It's interesting when I just Google the name Keelow, it came up. as an African name used to talk about First and Chief. It also went on, Google went on to say that Kilo is now a popular name for dogs as it implies strong, dependable, protector, and legal. It also references Kilo Rae, I'm sorry, Kilo Ren, which is the Star Wars character. So I think that that's an attempt by the state to muddy the waters that has no real effect on the sentencing of this case. In the end, the judge sentenced Blake Bates to a total of 62 months in prison, eight months for the strangulation charge, 18 months for the escape, and 36 months for the death of baby royal, the son he was supposed to protect.

He will receive credit for the time he's already served, which is more than 130 days. And just so you know, Alyssa Smith spoke at the sentencing, but asked not. to be shown on camera, invoking her right as a victim under Marcy's law. The prosecutor Ray Grogan talked about Blake Bates's sentence. As a parent, as a dog owner myself, I am responsible for making sure that my children are safe. I am responsible for making sure that nothing bad happens to my children. And Mr. Bates and Ms. Smith failed. They failed miserably in that regard. And as a result of that, this poor innocent baby was maltedith by this dog. And so I hope that the message that this sends is that you have to take care to make sure that your children

are safe. And if you have an animal that is in any way aggressive, you have to take appropriate action. And if you don't, there will be dire consequences. So Blake Bates, he will serve a little more than five years for all of the cases and Alyssa Smith will serve three years. Baby Royal, as I mentioned, would have celebrated his second birthday last week. Sadly, his life was cut short for no reason at all other than negligence and recklessness. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.