IONIA COUNTY, Mich. — Matt Rademacher cried as the details of the case against him were read in court on Monday.
The prosecution stated that last Friday September 18 when authorities arrived to his girlfriend’s home on Ferney Street in Clarksville, her 2-year-old son Colton Sceviour was found with foam around his mouth and bruising on his right cheek.
Deputies were dispatched to the home after they received a call about Colton choking on his food. However authorities found no food in his airway and were able to get him breathing again quickly, the prosecution said.
Colton was immediately taken to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids where he later died.
“After the autopsy, there was no indication that the child had choked and that there was some trauma to the head,” Ionia County Sheriff Charlie Knoll said during an interview with FOX 17. “The pathologist was ruling it a homicide based on that trauma.”
Sheriff Noll said the Kent County medical examiner performed an autopsy after finding bruises all over Colton’s head, face, and neck.
“With everything put together, based on the interviews and again the evidence, there was an arrest of a 27-year-old male, who’s the live-in boyfriend and the caretaker at the time when the child was reportedly choking,” Sheriff Noll said.
Rademacher was arrested. Monday he was officially charged with homicide and child abuse. He's facing life in prison if found guilty.
“It’s traumatic,” Sheriff Noll said. “It’s traumatic obviously for the family. It’s traumatic for the parents.”
