Infant murder case leads to sparring in Riverside County district attorney campaign

A murder case and other assault charges against a Coachella Valley man accused of killing his infant son are becoming an issue in the heated June 7 race for district attorney.

Jawhon Burts, 31, was charged with murder in December 2021 in the death of his 7-month-old son, Kyrie, who was taken to the hospital with severe trauma and is believed to have been strangled. Burts has pleaded not guilty in that case.

Before the child was killed, Burts had been charged with a felony for allegedly strangling a domestic partner, who survived. In that case, he pleaded guilty to the charge with the possibility of reducing the felony conviction to a misdemeanor if he completed mandated domestic violence classes.

The judge who oversaw that plea deal was Burke Strunsky, who is now seeking to unseat incumbent District Attorney Mike Hestrin in the June 7 election.

Prosecutors from Hestrin's office are now saying that Strunsky should not have allowed Burts to make such a plea deal, and his decision to do so cost Burts' son his life. And Strunsky is disputing the claim as unfounded.

"Had the court chosen to impose the 180-day custody term as requested by the People, the murder of the defendant's child could have been prevented," Deputy District Attorney Barrett Von Esch wrote in a legal document seeking to re-sentence Burt in the domestic violence case and impose stiffer penalties in light of the child's death.

Von Esch contends that Burts had a clear record of domestic violence against women he was in relationships with and against his children leading up to the killing. That series of criminal cases, police reports and hospital records should have resulted in stiffer sentences and jail time for Burts, Von Esch asserted.

Strunsky disputes Von Esch's description of what evidence the court had available about Burts' alleged offenses and when.

"At no point did the DA ever tell the court about any child abuse at any time prior to this plea," Strunsky said.

Strunsky says Von Esch's moves amount to political warfare. Strunsky has filed a complaint with the California State Bar claiming the prosecutor incorrectly described the proceedings and that the motion was politically motivated.

"Mr. Von Esch filed a sentencing memorandum that contained false statements and allegations against me as the sitting judge that essentially accused me of being responsible for the death of an infant child in a homicide case," Strunsky wrote to the state bar. "The sentencing brief mischaracterized facts, stated bizarre and inflammatory conclusions and showed a fundamental disrespect for the Court, the legal process and the victim of this crime."

John Hall, a district attorney's office spokesperson, said that the department had not been notified by the state bar that a complaint had been filed and questioned if Strunsky speaking about it amounted to a violation.

"Despite critics' attempts to politicize the criminal justice system or deflect from fervent advocacy and lawful judicial decision making, there is nothing political about the use of sentencing memorandums in criminal cases," Hall said.

Strunsky said that the prosecutor had no reason to file the motion since the murder case was pending. He added that the prosecutor did not request jail time for Burts and that in any case, Burts was released on bail more than a year after the assault.

"Further, in my 5 years as a judge, hearing thousands of criminal matters, there was not a single time when the District Attorney’s office sought to recuse me from any case; that is both before and after this matter," Strunsky wrote. "In sum, the District Attorney’s Office has weaponized a pleading in an active criminal case for political purposes during an election for District Attorney."

A hearing had been scheduled for Thursday to consider resentencing Burts to five years for the previous offense, but was rescheduled for July. Strunsky has taken a leave of absence since announcing his candidacy and is no longer hearing the case.

Cycle of violence

Burts, who has had residences in various parts of the Coachella Valley, has been charged in three domestic violence cases in the county. The identities of the victims are not disclosed in court filings; however, the circumstances of the cases appear to outline what prosecutors call a "cycle of violence."

On July 6, 2018, a Desert Hot Springs police officer was dispatched to an apartment in that city. A woman had called saying Burts had assaulted her while they were driving. She told the officer that Burts strangled her for about a minute, hit her head against the car's passenger window and pulled her hair.

The officer stopped Burts later while he was driving away from the residence and arrested him. The DA's office filed a misdemeanor battery charge against Burts in December 2018. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of fighting in public on Feb. 25, 2020, and was sentenced to 12 anger management classes.

Before that plea deal was finalized, Riverside County Sheriff's Department deputies were dispatched to an apartment in Bermuda Dunes on Jan. 23, 2020. A woman was suffering from a head injury and told the deputies Burts had strangled her. The woman said Burts was the father of her child, adding that the child was "at my feet" during the confrontation, according to Deputy John Glaccum's arrest warrant.

The woman said she and Burts got into an argument and he slammed her head against a wall, leaving a hole in the drywall, deputies later noted in the arrest warrant. He is alleged to then have choked her for about one minute until her "vision started to become black."

Glaccum wrote that Burts fled the scene but attempted to call the victim while the deputy was with her. Burts is said to have told her: "Don't tell them anything," and ended the call.

Glaccum said the woman did not ask to press charges and did not want to establish a protective order. "I attempted to locate and contact [Burts] myself but was unsuccessful," Glaccum wrote.

The district attorney filed one felony charge of inflicting corporal injury on June 1, 2020. Burts was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to the charge in August 2020, after which the case was slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the victim's subsequent pregnancy.

More than a year later, in September 2021, a preliminary hearing was finally set in the case. Burts' attorney requested a conference with the judge overseeing the case — Strunsky — to discuss a resolution. Von Esch's brief claims he offered to allow Burts to plead guilty to the felony and serve 180 days in jail. The defense rejected the offer.

Strunsky ultimately ruled on Sept. 28, 2021, to allow Burts to plea to the felony and complete 52 domestic violence classes before he was scheduled to be sentenced in March 2022. If he completed the classes, according to the plea form, Burts could reduce the conviction to a misdemeanor.

Von Esch now claims that this decision exhibited "extreme leniency" on the part of the court and allowed Burts to continue to "take advantage of those most vulnerable in society" to lethal effect.

Three months later, on Dec. 19, 2021, Indio police were dispatched to a residence around 10:30 a.m., where they found Burts was the only adult at home with two children.

One child, Burts' seven-month-old son, was not breathing and did not have a pulse, according to the prosecutor's brief. The infant was taken to JFK Medical Center and then to Loma Linda Children's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The staff at Loma Linda reported severe traumatic injuries.

Medical records reviewed by Loma Linda staff after the killing showed that the child had been taken to Eisenhower Medical Center twice when he was about two months old. He was treated for bruises on both arms in July 2021 and an eye injury about a week later.

"These hospital visits were noted in his medical records and Loma Linda treatment providers reviewing the records observed that such presentation in non-ambulatory infants is highly suspicious for physical abuse," Von Esch's sentencing brief reads.

The Desert Sun asked Eisenhower if the child's two injuries were reported to police, but did not receive a response. No criminal charges were filed in relation to those incidents, according to court records.

On Dec. 23, the court was alerted that Burts had missed the maximum number of domestic violence classes allowed as outlined in his plea deal. He had been arrested by police in the death of his son days before.

"Instead of changing his behavior and taking advantage of the court's offer, the defendant escalated his criminal behavior," Von Esch wrote. "These crimes are clear indications that the defendant is a menace to the community and does not intend on ever becoming anything but a violent domestic abuser."

Shaun Sullivan, Burts' attorney, said Saturday that his client is being dragged into the political battle for the DA's office and that he will be requesting Hestrin be recused from prosecuting the case moving forward.

"It's so deliberately misleading and chocked full of scare tactics that we have no choice but to move the court to replace Mr. Hestrin's office with the [state] Attorney General's Office as the prosecuting agency going forward," Sullivan said.

Sullivan maintained Burts' innocence in the murder case, saying he is the father of five children and was successfully completing the classes mandated by the plea until the death and arrest.

"Mr. Burts called 911 and was performing resuscitative measures on Kyrie when the authorities arrived. Further, the autopsy shows no indication of strangulation," Sullivan said. "We are looking forward to a fair opportunity to shine a light on the rest of the story."

Various factors can affect the amount of time a person is incarcerated before and after being convicted for a crime, with credits for time served and options for serving time on electronic monitoring or other types of release. The Desert Sun has previously reported on how the COVID-19 pandemic made this system all the more complex, with cash bail being waived for some offenses and the jails reaching capacity.

Assistant Public Defender Thomas Cavanaugh manages the county's public defenders working in the Indio courthouse, where Burts' 2020 assault case was heard by Strunsky and one of his staff represented Burts. Cavanaugh said that Strunsky is known as a tough sentencer and that the prosecutor mischaracterized how the plea deal could have been different.

"Mr. Burts was out of custody," Cavanaugh said. "And even if he would have accepted the DA’s deal, he would not have served time in custody anyway. He would have been serving it in work release. This is not true and they know that. His boss is running for reelection and they’re feeding it to the press."

Strunsky similarly stated Friday that the facts of the case as presented by the DA's office are not accurate.

"There was no legal avenue for the court to remand this defendant, nor was there even a request from the DA to remand the defendant," Strunsky said. "I did not have the legal authority to impose the 180-day sentence and Mr. Hestrin knows this."

Hall disagreed, saying that it is possible Burts would have been serving his sentence when the killing occurred.

"Even assuming credit for time served of 50 percent, and no additional time on the misdemeanor, the defendant 'could' have been serving the 82nd day of a 180-day county jail sentence on the date of the murder," said Hall.

Burts is being held in jail with no bail.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly described a misdemeanor plea. Burts pleaded to a misdemeanor fighting in public in 2020. 

Clarification: This story was updated with more information about previous allegations of child abuse made against Burts and comments from Burts' attorney. 

Christopher Damien covers public safety and the criminal justice system. He can be reached at christopher.damien@desertsun.com or follow him at @chris_a_damien.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Riverside County DA race: Strunsky, Hestrin spar on infant murder case