What to Know
- A New York City man was convicted in the 2021 beating death of his partner's 10-year-old son, Manhattan prosecutors announced Thursday.
- Ryan Cato was found guilty of murder in the second degree by a jury that had been deliberating for about a day, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said. His trial in a Manhattan court had started in late January.
- The medical examiner ruled Wolfe's cause of death to be battered child syndrome; he was covered in cuts and bruises and had multiple broken ribs as well as a lacerated liver, kidney and spleen
- The DA said Cato “tortured” Ayden Wolfe for months before beating him to death in a Harlem apartment
A New York City man was convicted in the 2021 beating death of his partner's 10-year-old son, Manhattan prosecutors announced Thursday.
Ryan Cato was found guilty of murder in the second degree by a jury that had been deliberating for about a day, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said. His trial in a Manhattan court had started in late January.
Bragg said Cato “tortured” Ayden Wolfe for months before beating him to death in a Harlem apartment. The boy was found beaten unconscious with multiple broken ribs and lacerated organs.
“The evidence shown to the jury proved the utterly depraved nature of Ayden’s murder, including extensive internal and external injuries that no one, let alone a child, should suffer,” DA Bragg said in a statement.
Jessica Horani, Cato’s public defender, said her client is disappointed in the verdict and will appeal.
“The death of Ayden Wolfe is a tragedy, but a depraved indifference murder conviction for Mr. Cato is not justice,” she said in a statement.
Wolfe was found lying unconscious and unresponsive in the living room of the home on West 131rd Street on March 6, 2021, after police said Cato called 911. Responding officers said family members were performing CPR on the naked child when they arrived. He had cuts and bruises all over his body, law enforcement sources said.
The boy later died at Harlem Hospital.
Police arrested and charged 34-year-old Ryan Cato on Sunday over the death of 10-yaer-old Ayden Wolfe. NBC New York's Ida Siegal reports.
At the time, police determined Wolfe died of “fatal child abuse syndrome." The medical examiner's report said the child's body was covered from head to toe with bruises and abrasions on both arms and hands, both legs and feet, his head and neck and his torso. Wolfe had multiple broken ribs and a lacerated spleen, liver and kidney as well as a lacerated renal vein, resulting in hemorrhaging to the soft tissue. The autopsy indicated those injuries were recent.
The criminal complaint filed against Cato provided chilling details into the abuse the boy had suffered prior to his death. A witness indicated Wolfe had been moaning in pain for a full day before he was found unconscious in the apartment.
According to the criminal complaint, someone who lived in the building told investigators of overhearing banging and thuds and a man yelling in the child's apartment vicinity the afternoon before he died. The person said the man was yelling, "Do you want me to beat your a-- too?" as a female voice pleaded, "Stop." The person also heard a soft voice moaning in pain.
The yelling and banging was said to have lasted about 40 minutes, the complaint says. Only Cato, Wolfe and his mother lived in the Harlem apartment.
Late the next morning, the person again heard banging and thuds coming from the apartment. The person reported hearing the same male voice yelling, "You thought yesterday was something? You think this s--t is a game?" Once again, the person reported hearing sounds of faint moaning.
A police officer responding to the emergency call later observed Cato had recent swelling to his right hand, according to the criminal complaint.
