‘You stole Oliver’s life’: Garden City man sentenced to life in Idaho 2-year-old’s death
A Garden City man was sentenced to life in prison for murder Friday in the death of his fiancee’s 2-year-old son.
Aaron Wiliams, 31, will spend a minimum of 25 years in prison and then be eligible for parole, according to the sentence handed down by 4th District Judge Derrick O’Neill. He also awarded over $11,000 in restitution to the victim’s family.
Williams pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in October.
The child’s fatal injuries occurred while he was in Williams’ care in February 2021. Police were called to a local clinic after receiving a report of a child with “significant injuries,” according to a Garden City Police Department news release. Later that day, the boy, identified as Oliver Ashland, was sent to St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in Boise, where he died.
On Friday afternoon, O’Neill stressed how Williams had covered up his conduct after the 2-year-old had been taken to a hospital. O’Neill said Williams had previously tried to convince the boy’s mother that the child was clumsy, rather than being beaten, and that he asked her to lie to the hospital and say she had been at home while Oliver was in the care of Williams.
The judge also noted the defendant had a history of drug use.
O’Neill also said forensic evidence at the home, which included blood spatter in several rooms, indicated that Williams had tried to “cover (his) tracks.”
“You stole Oliver’s life from him,” the judge said. “We’ll never know what Oliver would have become.”
Defense attorney Eric Robert Rolfsen said Williams has a history of anger issues and violence, but was remorseful.
“He’s an amazingly easygoing, pleasant, functional guy,” Rolfsen said. “When he loses it, he loses it. And when he loses it, he can be kind of dangerous.”
Williams had a prior domestic violence case, Rolfsen said.
In a statement before sentencing, Williams said through tears that he accepted whatever punishment was coming.
“There’s no words that can begin to mend the pain that I’ve caused,” he said. “I do know that I’ve had anger my whole life, and it’s ruined a lot of people’s lives.”
O’Neill cited Williams’ mental disorders, including intermittent explosive disorder, and the fact that he pleaded guilty as mitigating factors. The judge also said evidence indicated that the 2-year-old’s crying set Williams off, causing him to go outside to try to keep his temper in check at first.
“You knew you had a trigger mechanism, you knew you had a temper,” O’Neill said.
“Maybe the next person who’s standing there in a fit of rage hears about what you were sentenced to and thinks, and maybe another young person isn’t injured.”
