Kristopher Michael Harasymczuk appearing in court for his sentencing hearing (KTRV).
A 40-year-old man in Montana has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars for the murder of his 4-year-old stepson in 2021. The man, Kristopher Michael Harasymczuk, brutally killed the young boy by beating and submerging him in a scalding hot bathtub. The Yellowstone County District Court Judge, Collette Davies, handed down a sentence of 80 years in a state correctional facility for this heinous crime.
Judge Davies specified that Harasymczuk would serve 80 years for intentional homicide, as well as 15 years each for assaulting a minor and tampering with evidence. All of these sentences are to be served concurrently, meaning they will run at the same time. Harasymczuk was found guilty in March after a jury trial.
Moreover, the boy’s mother, Lana Marie Harasymczuk, aged 37, has also been charged in relation to her son’s tragic death. She is facing multiple charges, including three counts of child endangerment and three counts of tampering or fabricating physical evidence.
According to a report from the Billings Gazette, officers with the Billings Police Department and emergency medical personnel responded to the family’s home on Woodgrain Drive on Oct. 22, 2021 regarding an unresponsive child. Upon arriving, first responders said they found Jaxsynn on the ground in the bathroom next to the bathtub. Medics noted that the child was already dry when they arrived and his skin was warmer than normal.
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The boy was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead a short while later. An autopsy determined his death to be a homicide with the likely cause of death being hyperthermia, noting that on the day of his death the child’s temperature reached 102 degrees. Bruising was also noted on the boy’s face and other signs of abuse.
In subsequent interviews with Jaxsynn’s siblings, all of them reportedly confirmed that they had been physically abused by Kristopher Harasymczuk.
The boy’s mother initially claimed that Jaxsynn had gone to take a bath by himself, asserting Kristopher Harasymczuk was not present and that her son fell and drowned on his own, Great Falls, Montana CBS affiliate KRTV reported. However, after being confronted with signs of abuse, she reportedly confessed that her husband was the last person in the bathroom with the victim before he died and that just prior to his death, she heard the boy screaming.
“This is the worst one I’ve been involved in for sure,” John Ryan, Yellowstone senior deputy county attorney, told jurors, according to KRTV.
Billings, Montana CBS affiliate KTVQ reported that in addition to hyperthermia, Jaxsynn’s cause of death could have been blunt force trauma to the head or swelling caused by drowning.
“What happened to these kids is evil,” Detective David Raschkow of the Billings Police Department said during the trial, per KRTV.
After appearing before Judge Jeanne Walker, Lana Marie Harasymczuk’s bond was set at $100,000. Should she be released, she will be required to wear a GPS monitoring device and be prohibited from having any contact with minors.
