New York Man Pleads Not Guilty in Killing 2-Year-Old Boy by Burning Genitals with Blowtorch, Suffocating, and Beating Him

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A member of "Mara 18" gang stands handcuffed during an inspection at Centro Preventivo de Hombres prison, after the release of three guards of the penitentiary system (SP) in Guatemala City on September 4, 2020. - Guatemalan gang members on Friday released three prison guards who had been taken hostage in a jail in the capital, in rejection of the transfer of criminal gang leaders to other prisons, the government said. (Photo by Johan ORDONEZ / AFP) (not the actual story)

In court, a man accused of using a blowtorch to set fire to a two-year-old's genitals before putting the boy's body in the trash has denied the accusations. Following the discovery of toddler Athian Rivera's corpse, Wyatt Dean Lamb was charged with first-degree murder and ten additional crimes, including child abuse with injury.

In June, nearly four months after 2-year-old Athian Rivera was discovered dead in an apartment complex in Cheyenne, the Laramie County District Attorney's office announced charges against Wyatt Dean Lamb. Lamb pleaded not guilty to 11 accusations against him on Monday, including murder and criminal child abuse on ten counts.

Man accused of using a blowtorch on boy's genitals

Lamb was arrested for breaking probation from a previous unconnected incident on February 19, the day of Athian's murder. After a preliminary autopsy failed to identify the child's official cause of death, they had yet to charge him with murder. Lamb killed the boy, then took steps to hide his body, according to prosecutors in a nine-page probable cause statement.

Athian died on February 19 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., according to Laramie County Coroner Rebecca Reid. His body was covered in a bedsheet and blanket before being stuffed into five garbage bags, Crime Online reported.

Cerebral edema with herniation, induced by heat traumas, suffocation, and blunt force trauma, was eventually confirmed to be the official cause of death. Dr. James Wilkerson, a forensic pathologist, stated that the boy had blunt force injuries all over his body, as well as contusions, abrasions, and burn scars on his genitals, legs, and groin, which were likely inflicted by a portable blowtorch found in the mother's apartment.

The corpse of the 2-year-old boy was discovered in a dumpster outside an apartment building entrance on Desmet Drive in Cheyenne, Laramie County, two hours later. If found guilty of the charges leveled against him, Wyoming's Lamb may face the death sentence. He came before a judge in the Laramie County District Court, where part of the evidence against him was heard in the courtroom as he denied the offenses.

Autopsy report claims victim's death is murder

The burn scars matched those left by a portable torch discovered in Orona's residence, as per MIRROR. Athian's death was declared a murder, with cerebral edema with herniation as the cause, with three contributing factors: blunt force trauma, suffocation, and heat injuries.

On May 6, Wilkerson signed an autopsy report declaring Athian's death a murder. According to the affidavit, he claimed Athian was the victim of "non-accidental trauma." Suffocation or physical strangulation caused the full or partial collapse of a lung or lung region, according to Wilkerson. Two Cheyenne Police investigators were present for the autopsy, which took place on February 20.

The Cheyenne Police Agency named Lamb as a suspect in Athian's death on February 23, announcing that the department has proposed charges of murder and aggravated child abuse against Lamb to the Laramie County District Attorney's office.

According to court papers, bond terms imposed by a Laramie County Circuit Court judge in a separate matter in March 2020 banned Lamb from having contact with the boy's mother, Kassandra Orona, and from being within one block of her house.

After an incident involving Orona, Lamb was charged with felony strangling of a household member, misdemeanor property destruction, and interference with a peace officer. Per Wyoming News, the New York man denied the state's claims of bail revocation on March 4, 2021, stating that he had broken his release requirements in the strangling case by living with Orona since August 2020.