Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Shocking Development in Ohio Baby's Pit Bull's Death Investigation

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

Blake Bates faced felony and misdemeanor charges for the death of his baby boy, Royal, who was attacked and killed by his pit bull mix in April 2024. Bates' girlfriend, who was also charged, entered into a plea agreement to testify against him at trial. Now Bates' case has taken a major turn as newly-released videos show Bates and Alyssa Smith being warned about Kilo, the dog, biting a child a year before Royal was killed. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the new videos and has the latest in the case 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/Angenette5Guest:Mark Weaver   https://x.com/MarkRWeaverProducer: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. 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.

I'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 of 2024, police in Marion, Ohio, that's north of Columbus, were called to the home that Bates shared 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.

Royal's older seven-year-old sister was keeping an eye on him since her mom was in another room. She had taken 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.

Hey? 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.

One 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.

Well, 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.

He'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,

or 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.

Now 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 video that shows both Bates and Smith being warned about Kelo a little more than a year before Royal was killed. Royal hadn't even been born yet. How's it going, boss? It's going.

So 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 there and 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,

but 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.

No, 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.

I 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.

Oh, 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.

Oh, 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.

I cover a lot of really. scary crime stories here on crime fix. And if it's taught me anything, it's that privacy and personal safety absolutely cannot be compromised, especially when it comes to your personal info online. You would be really shocked at how much of your data, like your name, phone number, even your home address is just floating around the internet for data brokers to find and sell. Ever wonder why you get so many of those annoying spam calls and emails? Well, that's why. Our sponsor, Incogni, is a crucial tool that helps you take back control. by automatically identifying which data brokers have your info and then demanding they remove it.

Incogni actually found more than 50 brokers with my information and within days, they started getting me removed. It's really easy to use. Just create an account, authorizing Cogni to act on your behalf and let them handle the rest. And now, Incogni users, they can wipe their info from an even wider range of websites with the Unlimited Plan's new custom removals feature. All you need to do is copy and paste the links to sites where you've noticed concerning data breaches cropping up and creating issues in your life. And a team of privacy specialists will take care of the rest. The new Incogni unlimited feature even allows users to customize their data removals and tackle the toughest of breaches with the help of a team of privacy specialists. So if you care about your online

safety and you really should, take your personal data back with Incogni. Use code crime fix below on 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?

Is 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.

Yeah, 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.

You 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.

Because there was an incident with a kid and he went after him, I have to cite you for 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 tickets right off of that, you know, you know, and I don't want any cause any issues with you guys, 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 kid I 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.

Right. 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.

Oh, 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.

Still, 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.

Well, 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 was protective because there were puppies in the home. But after Kilo killed Royal, prosecutors say that family members came forward and told them that Blake Bates was doing things to make Kilo more aggressive, such as withholding food. And family members had warned him and Smith to not allow the dog around the children. Police talked to Blake Bates the day that Kilo attacked Royal.

What 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 12 when we're still trying to get rid of the other three.

Yeah. Just, uh, just the one grown dog, though? Uh, yeah. Gotcha. What was that dog's name? Uh, kilo. What's your name? Blake.

Last 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

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 fill out a bunch of information. I just need one of you guys to sign the dog over and I'm taking it. You guys, I'm sure you don't want it back, you know, ashes or anything like that. I know it's my dog. I already know you're in your feeling. You're going to start hitting 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

puppies. So there's two puppies and two adult dogs? There's three puppies. It's, it's their puppies. 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 three So 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.

Have 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 already I'm just, I'm just, 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 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.

Yep, 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.

You'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.

The dog Wharton asking the questions is the same one who had warned Bates and Smith about 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?

Come here, Kilo, come here, Kilo, come here. Come here, Kilo, come here. here. Kilo. Kilo! Kilo! Kee-O! Come on.

Now, 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 against Blake Bates.

Now, 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 the prosecutors on this case. We've talked about this many, many times. So, Mark, is this surprising to you that Blake Bates has decided to change his plea from not guilty to guilty in the death of his little baby boy, Royal? Not too surprising. He didn't have much of a defense. He knew the dog 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 careful with this dog and children, and of course,

the horrific outcome of this six-month-old baby being mauled to death. So I think he saw we have the evidence. I think his lawyer probably knew that the jury would be furious about this case, because anybody who sees the video of the dog and then the video and the photos of the dead child, which the jury would have seen all that,

comes 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 fair resolution. Prosecutor Ray Grogan and I sat and went through the case together. And we both agreed this would be a fair way to resolve it. Did the girlfriend, Alyssa, did her changing her plea and 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 only defense here would have been this was an accident accidents happen you know we loved our baby you know we we had a dog the dog did something horrible the dog has been euthanized end of

story yeah I think once the defense team knew that we were going to be able to get at 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,

dog 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 up speed towards a resolution. And let's briefly take a look at that warning from the dog warden, where the dog warden goes to Blake Bates and says, your dog bid a kid. I got him on video. He did.

He 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 bite marker anything he had a scratch so like he got away from the dog and time but he did go after the kid 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 I did see that yeah I did see so I mean I get accidents happen yeah right but I'm being told that the dogs are out quite often so Mark Blake Bates had been put on notice and told that his dog had bitten another child. And it was just kind of like, oh, you know, it didn't seem like a lot of, there was a lot of concern. I mean, I, I would be,

if my dog bit somebody, I'd be freaking out. And he was not freaking out. It didn't, it just seemed kind 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 a neighborhood child, tried to bite the child. The clothing on the child was able to prevent the skin from being broken by the bite, but then scratch the child. The mother was very upset and frightened, as you can imagine. And then when the dog warden came and told Lake Bates and and 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.

And 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.

It 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

experience I am not here it's not the prosecutor's job to tell people what kind of dogs to have that's beyond the scope of a prosecutor to tell people what dogs they have the lawmakers can do that they can pass laws I can say this people who own dogs that are vicious have a responsibility under the law to protect other people from that dog and at least in Marion County if they don't, then they're going to be held accountable in the way that Blake Bates was in this case. We know Keelow was euthanized. What happened to the other dogs in the family, the other dogs that the family owned?

I 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 based on a domestic violence incident of strangulation, which he's also pled guilty to, and then an escape attempt 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.

So 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 house or 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.

And 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 to that 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.

I 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.

These 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.

And 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.

Blake 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 intent was there and those people need to go away for a very long time because of their intent to kill. So he didn't have the intent to kill, but he was reckless enough that he needs to be held responsible. So we think this is an appropriate sentence for what happened. Wow. I hope this is a cautionary tale to anybody watching it that, A, I don't care what breed the dog is. You do not leave a dog around a baby or a young child unattended. And B, there are just certain dogs,

you 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 anybody ever, not even a little. And so it's when you have that warning. It's when you have that warning. It's when you've been told multiple times that this dog is not safe around children, that's when it 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 as that sentencing date nears. Thank you so much. A very sad case, and thanks for shedding light on it.

We 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.