James Vanderleest appears before Brown County court, December 1, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A Brown County judge ordered Thursday the release of some autopsy materials and medical examiner records in a Green Bay child death case.
James VanderLeest, 22, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide and other counts in connection with the June 2025 death of 2-year-old Leo Escalante on Green Bay’s east side.
Prosecutors cite an autopsy report that states Escalante suffered blunt force trauma and other head wounds. His injuries were not consistent with a fall down the stairs, as VanderLeest claimed, a doctor told police.
During a motions hearing Thursday afternoon, Judge Samantha Wagner ruled specific items from the full autopsy materials and medical examiner files can be released as attorneys continue preparing for a potential trial. Some of the information will be released directly to both the Brown County District Attorney’s Office and defense attorneys. Other requested materials will first be reviewed by Wagner before they are released.
Defense attorneys also requested Child Protective Services records. Wagner said she reviewed those records, found them relevant to the case and granted their release to the attorneys, with appropriate redactions.
Work is also continuing to release Escalante’s medical records after the court previously granted a defense motion requesting those files.
James VanderLeest’s father, 49-year-old David VanderLeest, is also charged in the case. He faces counts of aiding a felon and obstruction for allegedly lying to police, claiming he was the one home at the time of Escalante’s death, not James.
According to the criminal complaint, police responded to an Alpine Drive address for a report of a child who fell down the stairs and was not breathing.
David said he was home alone with Escalante when he left him to get a roll of toilet paper. When he returned, he found the boy at the bottom of the steps, David claimed. When police first talked to James, he said his father was the one with Escalante at the time of the incident.
But Escalante’s mother told police it was James who called her to say the child wasn’t breathing. She went to the home, where she found her son “limp” and unresponsive. She also said James wanted her to say it was David who was with the boy when the injuries occurred. The mother called 911.
An officer asked the mother “if she could recall any other words he was saying and she explained James kept telling her, ‘I’m sorry’ and that it was ‘an accident,’” the complaint states.
After Escalante’s death, authorities said the VanderLeests fled to a relative’s cabin in Florence County, where a SWAT team helped take them into custody.
James admitted he was with Escalante and then told police the same story — that Escalante had fallen down the stairs. He repeatedly denied causing fatal injuries. When pressed, James told police they were not going to get a “fake confession,” the complaint states.
David told police James told him the same version of events about the stairs fall.
Escalante was flown to Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee, where he was pronounced dead two days after his injuries occurred. According to the autopsy, “There were blunt force injuries to the head-multiple scalp and facial contusions; deep scalp and subgaleal hemorrhages; subdural hematoma; cerebral edema; scattered contusion of the extremities; three contusions of the trunk; two patterned contusions of the upper extremities.”
Family members of Escalante say James is the ex-boyfriend of Escalante’s mother. However, he is not Escalante’s father.
At previous court hearings, both VanderLeests disputed the accounts offered by police and prosecutors.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 13 at 11:30 a.m.
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