A Manhattan jury on Tuesday was asked to convict a Harlem man for the horrific murder of his partner’s 10-year-old son and the grim litany of abuse that preceded it, including savage beatings that left the child looking like “he was hit by a train.”
Assistant District Attorney Jonathon Junig said the timeline of events surrounding young Ayden Wolfe’s death, testimony from neighbors who heard beatings through the walls, and phone calls the child’s mother made to his incarcerated father left no doubt the accused killer Ryan Cato, 37, was guilty.
“The defendant is the only person who could have killed Ayden,” Junig said. “Based on that evidence, you have enough to convict him of depraved indifference murder of a child.”
Darnell Wolfe
Obtained by the Daily News Darnell Wolfe with his son, Ayden.
Medics responding to a 911 call from Ayden’s mother, Aquisha Johnson, found the 10-year-old unconscious and drenched in water inside their home on W. 131st St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. on March 6, 2021. He was rushed to Harlem Hospital and pronounced dead hours later.
The boy’s spleen, liver and kidney were all lacerated and he also suffered a lacerated renal vein, with his cause of death listed as “battered child syndrome,” according to court records.
The boy’s father, Darnell Wolfe, and neighbors and loved ones in 2021 described him to the Daily News as a bright and tech-savvy child, wise beyond his years. He had been attending school remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and had not interacted with teachers, counselors or school nurses in months, jurors heard during the trial.
In body-cam footage played throughout the trial and during the prosecution’s closing argument Tuesday, a frenetic Cato, soaked in sweat, is seen bombarding first responders with claims about other children in the neighborhood and talking over Ayden’s mother.
“It becomes apparent when we also look at the body cam, the defendant had two objectives — to cover his tracks and keep Aquisha quiet,” Junig said.
At the trial, the jury heard from Johnson, who cooperated with the prosecution against Cato. In a plea deal, she previously pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection to her son’s killing.
She admitted to sometimes hitting her son with a belt and forcing him to hold weights as “discipline,” and said the abuse he suffered at the hands of her boyfriend became more severe over time, to the point Cato would “fight” the child as forcefully as he would hit a grown man, jurors heard.
Prosecutors told the panel that the beatings that killed little Ayden began the day before his death. A doctor from the city Medical Examiner’s office said that a piece of the boy’s liver broke off inside his abdomen and the casing of his kidney began to come off like the peel of an orange.
The child had multiple injuries to his ribs in various states of healing, serving as further evidence of a prolonged period of abuse, Junig said.
“It looks like he a was hit by a train, but this is from the defendant pummeling him over and over again,” the prosecutor said Tuesday, pointing to disturbing photos taken during the child’s autopsy. “If this isn’t depraved, what is?”
Junig said the defense’s attempt to depict the mother as a master manipulator and also unable to control her emotions stood in conflict. He said while she wasn’t the “perfect mother,” it was clear she loved her son.
The prosecutor said calls the mother made to the child’s father recorded by the Department of Correction — in which Ayden was heard “squealing” in pain in the background — leading up to medics being called ruled her out as the aggressor that caused his fatal injuries.
Cato has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, child endangerment and related charges. He faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
The trial continues Wednesday.
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