The parents of 6-month-old Royal Bates were charged criminally earlier this year with reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter for his death. Prosecutors in Marion County, Ohio said Royal’s parents, Blake Bates and Alyssa Smith, left him supervised by his older sibling with their aggressive pit bull mix, Kilo in April 2024. The dog attacked Royal. Now Smith has agreed to testify against Bates.
The “big twist” in the investigation into the 2024 death of an Ohio baby, Royal Bates, is that his mother, Alyssa Smith, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and agreed to testify against the baby’s father, Blake Bates. Newly released video also showed that the parents had been warned about the pitbull’s aggression prior to the fatal attack
In April 2024, six-month-old Royal Bates was mauled to death by the family’s pit bull mix, Kilo, in their Marion, Ohio, home. At the time, prosecutors said the parents, Alyssa Smith and Blake Bates, had left the infant alone with the dog.
Body camera footage was released showing that the parents had been warned a year earlier that the same dog, Kilo, had bitten another child.-The pitbull was euthanized. Bates is scheduled to be sentenced in late October 2025 and faces up to three years in prison for his role in his son’s death.
