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TOOELE — A Grantsville man has been sentenced to prison after admitting to recklessly causing the death of his 18-month-old son in 2022.
Aaron Michael Visser, 47, was sentenced to a term of five years to life in prison for reckless child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony.
On June 6, 2022, Visser called 911 and reported his son, Carlisle Merlin Visser, was not conscious. He was arrested, and police said the boy was not expected to survive.
The young child was flown to Primary Children's Hospital and placed on life support with injuries like bruises, cuts, internal injuries, fractured ribs, a bruised lung and a brain bleed.
The boy's siblings told police their father often told them their brother had gotten injured from falling off the bed, and the day he was taken to the hospital, their father had gotten "very upset" about being woken up by the 1-year-old and his twin brother.
Police said Visser later told them he had been playing a game "where he threw" the toddler on his bed. "He continued that he had misjudged and the juvenile victim had bounced head over end of the bed and hit the ground. He stated that he did not see how the victim had struck the ground," according to court documents.
Investigators say the child's injuries are "both new and preexisting, which shows a pattern of extensive injuries the victim has received on multiple different occasions."
Visser was originally charged with aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, but pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of reckless child abuse homicide on July 9 as part of a plea deal.
