Shocking Development in Ohio Baby's Pit Bull's Death Investigation
00:00Wondery 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.So he didn't have a bite marker and then he had a scratch.He got away from the dog and time.But he did go after the kid.Yeah, yeah.That was a dog warden, warning Blake Bates about his dog a year before that same dog attacked and killed his baby boy royal.Keelow.
00:34I'll show you the new videos and tell you about the big development in Blake Bates' case.Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Annionette Levy.Blake Bates faced a number of charges in the death of his six-month-old son, Royal.Those charges included involuntary manslaughter and records.homeless homicide, also felony and misdemeanor charges of endangering children. On April 28th of2024, police in Marion, Ohio, that's north of Columbus, were called to the home that Batesshared with his girlfriend, Alyssa Smith, because their dog, Kilo, had attacked Baby Royal.The dog was a pit bull mix, and he had attacked Baby Royal when he rolled off the couch onto the floor.
01:23Royal's older seven-year-old sister was keeping an eye on him since her mom was in another room. She hadtaken a shower, but then was doing something else.Police say that Keelow ripped open royal skull.The scene was unbelievable.Here's the body worn camera footage.Take them inside.Where's my kid?Hey, you're going to be a call in your dad right now.
02:12Hey?Can I come in, please?Are you there?Hey, do you have a car?I can take you out there.I can take you if you don't have a car.I can take you if you don't have a car.Here, Claire.
02:30One minute's water over the cat.You just breathed easy, man.Okay.Oh my God.I need, I.I need, 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.
03:01Well, obviously.He, this is better for you to make it.Are you guys mom and dad?Yes.Okay.Is it just you guys here?It was my.We're over there.
03:13He's okay.Yes.Cometized.Right.Um, we're going to take pictures, but.Hello, I need you out my house now.If you want to start that, I was just trying to be easy that it's not good.Medics tried to save Baby Royal, but there was nothing that they,
03:29or doctors at the hospital could do.Royal had suffered a life-ending injury.Now, the last time I told you about this case,I told you that Alyssa Smith,who was also charged in connection to Royal's death,had changed her plea pleading guilty to child endangering,a third-degree felony.Smith had agreed to testify against Blake Bates.
03:48Now there's been a new development in Blake Bates' case,and I'll get to that very shortly.But first, I want to show you videothat shows both Bates and Smith being warned about Keloa little more than a year before Royal was killed.Royal hadn't even been born yet.How's it going, boss?It's going.
04:13So what happened today?I had come out to get in the car,and my one dog had got out,and I didn't see him,and he kind of ran around the fence thereand was kind of barking at the kids or whatever.And then I could,or she yelled, I yelled, and he just came back or whatever,
04:27but he did, like, growl at him and bark at him and shit.Well, he grabbed him.He did?Yeah, I got him on video.You do?Okay.He didn't, there was no...I didn't, like, get to see it on the car.
04:36No, you're fine.So, he, uh...He didn't have a bite marker and then he had a scratch.So, like, you got away from the dog in time, but he did go after the kid.Yeah, yeah.Yeah, because you can see it in the video where your dog, like, was right up on his legs, and he's kicking.Yeah, I did see that.Yeah.
04:54I did see that.So, I mean, I get accidents happen.Yeah.Right.But I'm being told that the dogs are out quite often.I mean, I have them.I put them on my chain thing here.Yeah, but they're saying that they run loose too.
05:07Oh, no, no, no.I don't just let them just run around.Right.Yeah, no.Okay.Do you have your ID on you, bud?I don't, actually.I had to get a new one because I just moved here from Myrtle Beach.
05:18Oh, okay.No, I don't have.You moved to here?Yeah.Take around my grandpa here.Oh, okay.He's doing me.Well, I guess that's a good enough reason to move from Myrtle Beach.
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06:47safety and you really should, take your personal data back with Incogni. Use code crime fix belowon the screen and get 60% off an annual plan.Now, that was in April of 2023, a little more than a year before Royal was killed.And as I mentioned, he hadn't even been born yet.How many dogs do you have?Two.Two? Okay.Is, do you have a Brenda one?
07:10Is that what?Okay, Brenda.Are they registered through the county?I haven't got mine registered here.Mine, I do, but we just moved, and I don't know where the papers are.Okay.Not like AKC.I'm talking about county dog tags.
07:24Yeah, yeah, no.Okay.Where did you get?yours registered?She might, I keep your getting, I might need to renew them.Yeah, it's a yearly thing usually.Yeah, then I need to.Yeah.
07:35You can get a lifetime tag, but I tell people you're wasting your money.Because you can't get into your dog doesn't get cancer or something.So because it's after January 31st and you didn't renew, it's $40 a dog.Okay.Unless you can prove if they've been fixed or not.Yeah, she just had puppies.The dogs were not registered.not registered. But the dog warden cut Bates and Smith a break on that.
08:00Because there was an incident with a kid and he went after him, I have to cite youfor a fair to confine the dog, okay? I will give you a break on the fair to register.I'm not going to cite you guys for that. I'm not going to hit you with three ticketsright off of that, you know, you know, and I don't want any cause any issues with youguys, but yeah, he did grab the kid. I got on video. He scratched him with us too.Usually he's out here with a leash or whatever. It could have been worse, but the kidI think it was the kids' pants and stuff got, you know, he might have grabbed the pants, but we got to make sure we keep an eye on them from getting out.No, that's, that's totally understandable.
08:35Right.Yeah, but he's usually always on a week.Is he usually like, if he's about people or something?No, he's kind of got a little different because now he had them puppies and all, and that's why we're going to get him fixed.Is the puppy still here?Uh-huh.How old are the puppies?They're only four weeks.
08:49Oh, okay.They're about four weeks.Yeah.Yeah.You still got four weeks with them.So that's why we usually don't let him out.So, yeah, he's going to be a little protective.I mean, yeah, granted, the kids over there, but still.
09:00Still, yeah, he shouldn't have done it, yeah.So I appreciate, I'm glad you got this up here.A lot of people don't think about that.See, that's what we usually do.We usually have them on the leash, or we usually take him on the leash,take him right to the car to go bye-bye or something.He just slipped out of the house today.Right.
09:16Well, that's why I said.I get accidents happen, but when it comes to a, I understand it wasn't like a full-blown injury,but he still caused something, there has to be a saturday.should we get you. So right there, Bates and Smith, they were warned. And they said that Kilo wasprotective because there were puppies in the home. But after Kilo killed Royal, prosecutors saythat family members came forward and told them that Blake Bates was doing things to makeKilo more aggressive, such as withholding food. And family members had warned him and Smith to notallow the dog around the children. Police talked to Blake Bates the day that Kilo attacked Royal.
09:55What else do you need to do?Anything here?The dogs put up, then as good as he can be right?Yeah.Okay.How many dogs do you guys have?Four, because they end up having a litter and we just sold nine of the 12when we're still trying to get rid of the other three.
10:24Yeah.Just, uh, just the one grown dog, though?Uh, yeah.Gotcha.What was that dog's name?Uh, kilo.What's your name?Blake.
10:43Last name?Bates.Sounds like you guys just moved here this week or about a week ago?Not yet.This week.At the hospital, the dog warden spoke with Alyssa.and Blake Bates, and the exchange between the couple here is interesting.I had him on the couch, and he just rolled off the couch, and I told my daughter to hurry up and
11:05grab 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 fill out a bunch of information. I just need one of you guys to signthe dog over and I'm taking it. You guys, I'm sure you don't want it back, you know, ashes oranything like that. I know it's my dog. I already know you're in your feeling. You're going to starthitting me now because it's my dog. I just didn't want to sign it because it's. I get it.That's. Is there, how many dogs are in the home? There's four, but we're trying to find the
11:45puppies. So there's two puppies and two adult dogs? There's three puppies. It's, it's theirpuppies. Yeah. So I have my female that I've had for five years. She's my mother.And then we got together and then they ended up having nine puppies and we got rid of all of them but threeSo you have five in the house? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, because they're female. Yeah, I don't know how it's good at. But the male is the one that. Okay, yes, yes. The other ones were trying to actually help me.Where's the dog at, you know? He's in the backyard and there's a little fenced area we have for them now. Okay.before we're trying to help me and trying to attack him.But it was just chaos now.He's so good.
12:38Have you just talked to heaven yet?No.I just tried to call.I'm trying to get me right first before because she deserves a face-of-face.You're children's services alreadyI'm just, I'm just, you're okay.You're okay.We did everything, we...
13:03No, bro.I've seen he's getting angry and being like that.I should have got rid of him over there or not.I just feel like I'm like a lot.I don't know, what's today's date between anything?Don't worry about it, dude, I'll do all that.I just need you to sign.I just need you to sign.
13:26Yep, you did it.That's all I need.What's the dog's name?A kilo.What color?He's a gold and black striped.Okay.It'll be the only one out of the back.
13:38You'll have a black body harness around that collar.Okay.there shouldn't be any of the rest of when we're in any job.Yeah.So Smith tells Bates, hey, that's your dog.And he's worried that she's going to be mad at him.Meanwhile, baby Royal is dead.It's pretty unbelievable.
13:59The dog Wharton asking the questions is the same one who had warned Bates and Smithabout Kilo biting a child a year earlier.And he was dispatched that day to capture Kilo and remove him.And Kilo was not.Happy.Kilo.Kilo.What you go in this garage?
14:41Come here, Kilo, come here, Kilo, come here.Come here, Kilo, come here.here.Kilo.Kilo!Kilo!Kee-O!Come on.
15:46Now, Kilo is obviously scared here, and he's cornered.He had just ripped open a baby skull.this is the same dog warden who had warned Blake Bates and Alyssa Smith about the dog a little more than a year earlier.I'm sorry.Kilo would end up being euthanized by Marion County.He'd bitten a child in 2023 and now he had killed a baby.Alyssa Smith, as I told you, pleaded guilty in August and agreed to testify againstBlake Bates.
17:28Now, Blake Bates has decided to change his plea to guilty.So to discuss this change of plea for Blake Bates, I want to bring in Mark Weaver, one of theprosecutors on this case. We've talked about this many, many times. So, Mark, is this surprising to youthat Blake Bates has decided to change his plea from not guilty to guilty in the death of hislittle baby boy, Royal? Not too surprising. He didn't have much of a defense. He knew thedog was vicious. He had been warned by the dog warden after the pit bull got out.and attacked another child, that he needed to be carefulwith this dog and children, and of course,
18:15the horrific outcome of this six-month-old babybeing mauled to death.So I think he saw we have the evidence.I think his lawyer probably knew that the jurywould be furious about this case,because anybody who sees the video of the dogand then the video and the photos of the dead child,which the jury would have seen all that,
18:38comes away very upset. And so not a surprise. Not every defendant is willing to own up. And this one has.He has other charges pending. So he's going to be doing some significant prison time. But it's a fairresolution. Prosecutor Ray Grogan and I sat and went through the case together. And we both agreedthis would be a fair way to resolve it. Did the girlfriend, Alyssa, did her changing her pleaand agreeing to testify against Blake, did that appear from your vantage?point as the prosecutor to factor into his decision to plead guilty because I'm assuming the onlydefense here would have been this was an accident accidents happen you know we loved our babyyou know we we had a dog the dog did something horrible the dog has been euthanized end of
19:32story yeah I think once the defense team knew that we were going to be able to getat the testimony of the girlfriend, the mother of the dead child who was there that day,to testify against Mr. Bates that I think they knew that that was going to be difficult for them.Now, she has agreed, of course, that she had some complicity in this death, and she will serve 90 days in jail.He really is the much more significant actor.He's the one who owned the dog.He brought that dog to the relationship.There's lots of evidence he was warned by this dog, not just about this dog, not just by the,
20:08dog warden, but by family members.So he was much more culpable.Once we were able to get her guilty plea and get her cooperation, the case started picking upspeed towards a resolution.And let's briefly take a look at that warning from the dog warden, where the dog wardengoes to Blake Bates and says, your dog bid a kid.I got him on video.He did.
20:35He didn't, there was no.I didn't like get to see it I was in the car no you're fine so he uh he didn't have a bitemarker anything he had a scratch so like he got away from the dog and time but he did go afterthe kid yeah yeah because you can see it in the video where your dog like was right up on hislegs and he's kicking yeah I did see that I did see that yeah I did see so I mean I get accidentshappen yeah right but I'm being told that the dogs are out quite often so Mark Blake Bateshad been put on notice and told that his dog had bitten another child. And it was just kind oflike, oh, you know, it didn't seem like a lot of, there was a lot of concern. I mean, I, I would be,
21:22if my dog bit somebody, I'd be freaking out. And he was not freaking out. It didn't, it just seemedkind of like, oh, no, yikes, that's too bad, like not a big deal. Yeah, this dog, he, he was,Kilo, kind of an odd name. Most Americans don't use the metric system unless, you know,you want to make a drug reference. So the dog is called Kilo, did get out and went right for aneighborhood child, tried to bite the child. The clothing on the child was able to prevent theskin from being broken by the bite, but then scratch the child. The mother was very upset andfrightened, as you can imagine. And then when the dog warden came and told Lake Bates andand Alyssa Smith, they were both there for the warning. They acknowledged it, but a very flat affect, like, sure, yeah, of course, whatever. Most of us, responsible people would take that as a reason to either, A, find another place for this dog to live, maybe where there are not small children, or B, take much more significant precautions to keep this child from children from being bitten or attacked by this dog.
22:34And just, you know, a short time later, that's when the baby, Royal, rolls off the couch and is attacked and killed by this dog.And that dog, I swear that dog is, when you look at him, when the dog warden is trying to capture that dog, he looks like, I mean, he's scared.And the dog warden is somebody, you know, who is used to dealing with dogs.Obviously, he's carrying one of those poles around that has the circle thing on it so you can put it around his neck to catch him.So that might be a little intimidating.But dog wardens are used to dealing with dogs.And I am just a little bit shocked, but not really, given what happened in this case, how aggressive this dog appears to be.I mean, this dog is snarling, barking.
23:29It might be a little scared.It's cornered at one point, but still, Kilo looks like he's ready to, like, rumble.I mean, that's what I see when I look at this video.Yeah, it's very upsetting.What I saw for the first time, my first thought was that low, loud, guttural snarl,and those very sharp and powerful teeth were the last thing that this little baby saw.That's what hit me when I watched how aggressive and vicious the dog was.trying to imagine what it must have been like for that for that infant to have to have that
24:06experience I am not here it's not the prosecutor's job to tell people what kind of dogs to havethat's beyond the scope of a prosecutor to tell people what dogs they have the lawmakers can dothat they can pass laws I can say this people who own dogs that are vicious have a responsibilityunder the law to protect other people from that dog and at least in Marion Countyif they don't, then they're going to be held accountable in the way that Blake Bates was in thiscase.We know Keelow was euthanized.What happened to the other dogs in the family, the other dogs that the family owned?
24:44I think they were given to other homes.Blake Bates has been in and out of jail, mostly in jail for most of this time, largely basedon a domestic violence incident of strangulation, which he's also pled guilty to, and then an escapeattempt from the jail, which he's played guilty to.So those younger dogs that were in the house, there were other pit bull mixes down in the basement when this attack occurred, have gone to other homes.I don't know that they went to the family.There was a lot of controversy within the family about whether there should even be these dogs.In fact, one family member had warned Blake specifically not to have the dog around the children.
25:24So it wasn't just a dog warden who had warned Blake Bates about the aggressiveness of the dog.It was a family member who cared about the welfare of not just the baby who was mauled to death,but also a little girl, a seven-year-old girl who was living in the house as well.Did Alyssa Smith, since you were able to flip her and she was going to testify,did she say that she had any concerns about having these dogs in the houseor that she was aware that anything was being done to make kilo, in particular, more aggressive?You had said that in the past that you believed food was being withheld,from Kilo and things of that nature to make him more aggressive.
26:03And maybe this was like this dog was a status symbol of sorts,not that it was involved in dog fighting or something like that.So was she able to provide any information to say to you or that she was going to testify tothat given the reasoning for having, you know, a dog and wanting to make it aggressive?Yeah, the lead detective, Lieutenant Dylan Rast and I both interviewed Alyssa.Smith after she agreed to cooperate with the state.And there was a fair amount of covering for Blake Bates.She did provide some information that would have been helpful to us at trial.
26:42I think under cross-examination or under direct examination,depending on which side was asking the questions,there might have been some better information that came out.But these two were romantically involved.I don't know that they are now.You know, he's in jail.She's not.She's going to be in jail.
26:59These things are twisted.I don't know all the details.I do know there appeared to be some equivocation here and there.And she tried to claim that the dog was perfectly calm and peaceful and loved children.I don't know that the jury would have believed that.Looking at what happened, looking at what kind of dog it was,it'd be hard to imagine that a jury would think that's true.So even when you flip somebody, you don't always get the straight answer.
27:26And I had some concerns we weren't getting the straight answer.Oh, yikes. Were you thinking about revoking her plea deal?No, I mean, part of her plea deal was she had to testify truthfully.It wasn't to the point where I think she stated something that was a provable lie.But there were only two adults in the house that day.They're the ones who know.And I didn't want to drag the seven-year-old into this and try to get her testimony.So this is a better resolution for everything.
27:53Blake Bates will probably spend four, five, six years in prison.He didn't intend for this baby.to be killed. I mean, I've worked on death penalty cases and murder cases where the intentwas there and those people need to go away for a very long time because of their intent tokill. So he didn't have the intent to kill, but he was reckless enough that he needs to be heldresponsible. So we think this is an appropriate sentence for what happened. Wow. I hope thisis a cautionary tale to anybody watching it that, A, I don't care what breed the dog is. You do notleave a dog around a baby or a young child unattended. And B, there are just certain dogs,
28:35you know, that don't need to be around babies and young children. And if they've been,if you've been worked, right? So we all know gentle dogs. And most of us who have dogs,I have a dog who's very gentle with children. Our dog is never nipped or bitten anybodyever, not even a little. And so it's when you have that warning. It's when you have that warning. It'swhen you've been told multiple times that this dog is not safe around children, that's whenit becomes most critical to take action. Yeah, most certainly. And that poor little baby,may he rest in peace, little royal. God, just awful. Mark Weaver, we'll keep an eye on it asthat sentencing date nears. Thank you so much. A very sad case, and thanks for shedding light on it.
29:22We hope some people will take something away from this that may protect another child.No doubt. Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.
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