Man accused of toddler death will face trial
Wozynski charged in 2018 killing of 3-year-old
The case against a Tuolumne County man accused of abusing and murdering the 3-year-old son of his girlfriend in September 2018 can move forward to trial, Tuolumne County Superior Court Judge Kevin Seibert ruled Wednesday afternoon following an all-day preliminary hearing.
Brett Douglas Wozynski, a former resident of Jamestown who pleaded not guilty to murder and child abuse in connection with the death of Sean Arnold, 3, at a property he lived at in Tuolumne, was masked and in a jail jumpsuit Wednesday morning. He sat beside his attorney, Public Defender Scott Gross, for the duration of the hearing, often writing with a blue pen. In block letters along his right forearm was the word “RAGE.”
According to Union Democrat records, firefighters and paramedics responded to a house on Tionesta Road in Tuolumne on Sept. 16, 2018, after Wozynski reported the boy was unconscious. The boy was flown by helicopter to UC Davis Medical Center and put on life support. He died a few days after life support was removed.
If convicted, Wozynski faces the possibility of two life sentences.
Wozynski has remained in custody at the county jail since his arrest in June last year. He’s being held on $1 million bail.
Acting District Attorney Eric Hovatter, who is prosecuting the case, said there was only “one person alive” who knew exactly what occurred when Arnold was injured.
“That person obviously is the defendant,” Hovatter said.
Hovatter said Wozynski’s explanation for Arnold’s fatal injuries — that during a race to a travel trailer 150 yards away for
candy, Arnold fell forward and hit his head, stood up, fell backward hitting his head again — “defies logic and the laws of physics.”
Instead, Hovatter asserted, Wozynski likely hit Arnold in a fit of anger, reacting out of frustration for his own troubles and as a punishment for the boy possibly wetting himself.
Reportedly, Wozynski told family members at the hospital before Arnold died that he and the mother, Brianna Brown, could have another child to replace him.
Gross argued only that the evidence presented was “insufficient for a holding order.”
Multiple Tuolumne County Sheriff’s deputies testified to the uneven and often precarious terrain on the Tionesta Road property, which was shared by multiple households in a cabin and travel trailers.
A jagged and uneven embankment wall, just above 2 feet high, was the site where Wozynski first claimed the fatal fall occurred.
Sheriff’s Det. Israel Speer said he interviewed a first responder from the Tuolumne Rancheria Fire Department, who reported that Wozynski had told them about Arnold falling in both directions and hitting his head.
Speer and other detectives also spoke to Brown’s and Wozynski’s family members, who said Wozynski had a reputation for harsh physical discipline and verbal abuse of Arnold. One family member characterized him as an “alcoholic” and said he did not show emotion at UC Davis Medical Center when Arnold was being treated.
Dr. Jason Tovar, the chief forensic pathologist at the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office, said Arnold’s cause of death was a blunt force injury to the head.
Tovar also detailed traumatic injuries throughout the body and groin, consisting on the outside of bruises, contusions and abrasions.
The bruises on the head indicated Arnold was hit with a flat object, like a fist, palm or a knee, Tovar said. Beyond the outside bruises, he discovered internal bleeding beneath the surface suggesting Arnold was hit in the front, back and side of the head. He postulated that the theory about Arnold falling and hitting his head on a rock did not correlate with his medical findings.
Tovar testified at the preliminary hearing in the case of Koltyn Blackwoodsparks last week as a pathologist specialist hired by the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office. The two cases are unrelated, though both garnered public attention for occurring close in time to one another and having an investigatory period following the deaths of both children before charges were announced.
Sheriff’s Det. Richard Donaldson was present at the autopsy and provided
Tovar with guidance as to what they knew about the case at the time.
Donaldson also testified that he took photos and videos of the property and collected the clothing Arnold was wearing when he purportedly sustained the injuries.
Arnold was reportedly wearing slippers from the cartoon Paw Patrol and an Ironman costume when he was first located by emergency personnel and treated. Inside on the crotch of the costume there was what appeared to be a urine stain, Donaldson said.
Hovatter said “potty accidents” were a trigger for Wozynski, who was previously observed becoming upset with Arnold over the same issue.
In the days before the incident, Wozynski appeared upset, Donaldson said, referring to family interviews. He had been experiencing mounting frustration about not having a job or car, and spending his days babysitting Arnold and a child he shared with Brown.
Wozynski was 25 when he was arrested on June
4. He pleaded not guilty on June 12.
Seibert scheduled an arraignment on the information, a hearing where Wozynski will enter in another plea on the charges, for 1:30 p.m. March 22 in Department 2 of Tuolumne County Superior Court.