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Stepdad repeatedly threw 2 year old boy in pool so he could learn swimming only to cause him to drown

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Dakota Shawn Hays and Annastacia Atkins, Arkansas couple charged in drowning death of 2 year old boy after repeatedly throwing boy in pool.
Dakota Shawn Hays and Annastacia Atkins, Arkansas couple charged with first degree murder in the drowning death of 2 year old boy, Daxton Ray Bull after repeatedly throwing boy in pool.
Dakota Shawn Hays and Annastacia Atkins, Arkansas couple charged in drowning death of 2 year old boy after repeatedly throwing boy in pool.
Dakota Shawn Hays and Annastacia Atkins, Arkansas couple charged with first degree murder in the drowning death of 2 year old boy, Daxton Ray Bull after repeatedly throwing boy in pool.

Dakota Shawn Hays and Annastacia Atkins, Arkansas couple charged in the drowning death of 2 year old boy after the stepdad repeatedly threw toddler into the pool so he could ‘learn how to swim’ only to cause the boy to die despite boy pleading not to be thrown into pool. Couple stand accused of first degree murder. 

An Arkansas stepfather who repeatedly threw his 2-year-old stepson into a pool ‘to teach him how to swim’ has been charged with the toddler’s murder after the boy drowning, cops said.

Dakota Shawn Hays, 20, and his wife Annastacia Atkins, 24, were arrested on Monday following the drowning death of the child, Daxton Ray Bull, last summer, KHBS reported. 

Questionable swimming lessons

The boy died on June 17, 2024, three days after Atkins and Hays called 911 when he became unresponsive after swimming in a pool at his aunt’s house, according to an arrest affidavit filed Jan. 2, 

When deputies arrived at the family home on June 14, the two year old’s body was freezing and his ‘eyes were stuck,’ Atkins allegedly said according to the affidavit.

She said his heart and breathing had stopped, and when she started pushing his chest, he choked up water, the document stated.

Hays told officers he had been teaching the boy how to swim, along with another boy, 4, and a 6-year-old girl, according to the affidavit.

Hays told deputies that ‘the three kids would hang onto him on the chest and he would grab their noses and sink to the bottom with them, sit there, and go back up to the surface,’ according to the affidavit.

Dakota Shawn Hays and Annastacia Atkins, Arkansas couple charged in drowning death of 2 year old boy after repeatedly throwing boy in pool.
Pictured, Annastacia Atkins mother and 2 year old son, Daxton Ray Bull.

Prior incidents of child abuse 

But the 4-year-old told detectives he had almost drowned as a result of Hays throwing him in the pool, the affidavit stated. The boy and six year old girl also told detectives their two year old brother had repeatedly protested not to be thrown into the pool, only for the stepdad to continue while their mother watched on. 

The 4 year old added that Hays and Atkins would physically punish him by hitting him with a stick on his head, knees and feet. 

The 6-year-old girl told detectives that Hays pushed his stepson under the water, adding that he ‘did not want to swim but Dakota would throw him in the pool,’ per the affidavit.

She said that Hays threw the toddler into the pool repeatedly and that she had to often ‘retrieve him from the bottom.’

The boy’s autopsy found the official cause of death from a prolonged lack of oxygen to the brain, People Mag reported. 

The autopsy also also stated the boy suffered from ‘multiple traumatic injuries’ to the head, face and torso, believed to have occurred over a long period.

Hays told law enforcement he would never hurt a child. The stepdad said some of the bruising came when the 2-year-old fell off a countertop the night before.

Atkins said she never saw Hays hit the boy. Nevertheless the mother said Hays once told her he believed he ‘whooped’ him too hard and had left red marks on his leg.

Hays is held in the Crawford County Jail on a $1 million bond, while Atkins is held on a $750,000 bond.

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