A Las Vegas man has been accused of killing his girlfriend’s four-year-old son, Mason Dominguez, and hiding the boy’s body in a freezer in the garage. He faces the death penalty if convicted but has pleaded not guilty.
Brandon Lee Toseland, 36, was arrested in February after his then girlfriend’s daughter gave a note to her teacher, saying that her mother was being held against her will and that her mom suspected her son was dead. This note led to the discovery of the boy’s body in a garage freezer.
The mother’s boyfriend, Toseland, was subsequently arrested.
Toseland will be charged with kidnapping, child abuse, murder and domestic battery by strangulation.
The prosecution put through a notice of intent for the death penalty on August 11 in Clark County District Court.
Previously, in March, Mason’s mother sued Toseland for wrongful death and negligence. Toseland responded with a countersuit alleging that Mason’s mom was aware the boy had died in December, and was willing to help him take care of the body.
The family lawyer told reporters that Mason’s mom suffered through several months of horrific abuse and emotional torture at the hands of Toseland. He threatened to kill her two kids if she tried to leave him.
The mother is not being charged in her son’s death.
“There was never a time when her daughter was with her that she was not locked in a room, bound or handcuffed,” attorney Stephen Stubbs said. “There was never an opportunity to take her daughter and run.”
The mother told detectives that Toseland would restrain her to hold her captive, and that the last time she saw her son was on December 11. Toseland told her the boy had become ill and that it was too late to save him.
Toseland later admitted to the mother that the boy was dead but told her she would not be allowed to see his body because “he would lose his freedom.” Toseland’s police report states he never called police or paramedics.
Mason was found in the bottom of the freezer, with several food items on top of him. His body reportedly showed signs of physical abuse. In July, the County Clark coroner ruled that the boy had died of blunt force trauma and his death was ruled a homicide.
“The mother was physically, sexually, and emotionally abused,” Stubbs told reporters. “The children were physically and emotionally abused and separated from their mother most of the time.”
Police say the woman was being held by the man against her will, and she “did not know the whereabouts of her toddler and … believed the child was possibly deceased.”