Footage Shows Dad Of Murdered Toddler Pummeling Alleged Killer In Court
The Ohio father of a murdered toddler punched the boy’s alleged killer, who also stands accused of killing the child’s mother, in a dramatic courtroom attack.
Footage captured Tonio Hughes ambushing Desean Brown, 22, in court on Thursday morning during a pretrial hearing for the alleged killer, Fox 19 reports.
Brown will face trial for the 2020 stabbing death of his girlfriend Nyteisha Lattimore, 29, and the murder of her 3-year-old son Nylo Lattimore. Investigators believe that Brown killed both mother and child before putting their bodies in the Ohio River; the child's body has never been recovered.
Hughes is Nylo Lattimore’s biological father.
In court, the distraught dad can be seen rushing Brown before punching him in the right side of the head. Then, two sheriff’s deputies restrained him and put him into custody.
“Everything inside him, just the pain and everything took over,” family friend Faith Burton told Fox 19. “He did what I think any of us would do.”
A judge found Hughes in contempt of court and sentenced him to seven days at the Hamilton County Justice Center.
“Judge Megan Shanahan and the Hamilton Sheriff’s Office would like to emphasize that this behavior will not be tolerated in the courthouse,” Hamilton County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Kyla Woods told Fox 19.
Brown could face the death penalty if he is convicted of the two murders. He was in a relationship with Nyteisha Lattimore, who was stabbed multiple times in a Cincinnati apartment, police said in an arrest affidavit previously obtained by Oxygen.com. Nyteisha Lattimore's body was found days later near the Purple People Bridge but the boy’s body has never been recovered. Investigators found a stroller near the mother's body and Nylo Lattimore’s blood on a Paw Patrol blanket.
Burton told Fox 19 that her friend, Tonio Hughes, is heartbroken that he doesn’t have his son's remains or a place to mourn the child.
“I’ve had to be on late-night calls, because he’s on the edge, you know?” Burton said, adding, “I couldn’t live without my child either, you know? So I get his emotions, I get why he acted out in court today.”
