Supporters of Leo Escalante attend Brown County court appearances for David and James VanderLeest, Aug. 14, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The autopsy report waiting game continues in the criminal cases related to the death of two-year-old Leo Escalante.
James VanderLeest, 22, is charged with reckless homicide for the June 22 death of Escalante on the city’s east side.
His father, David VanderLeest, 48, is charged with aiding a felon and obstruction for allegedly lying to police, claiming he was the one at home at the time of the child’s death. He returns to court Feb. 24 for a status conference.
During a court hearing Monday for James VanderLeest, the update was the same as it has been at several recent cases: one of the autopsy reports isn’t completed.
Until it is, the attorneys aren’t sure what motions may need to filed in the case or what experts they may need, effectively putting everything on hold.
James VanderLeest will return to court Feb. 10. No trial dates have been set for either case.
According to the criminal complaint, police responded to the Alpine Drive address for a child who fell down the steps and was not breathing.
David VanderLeest said he was home alone with the child when he left him to get a roll of toilet paper. When he returned, he found the boy at the bottom of the steps.
When police first talked to James VanderLeest, he said his father was the one with Escalante at the time of the incident.
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 him “limp” and unresponsive. She also said James wanted her to say it was David who was with the boy when the injuries happened. 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 say the VanderLeests took off to a relative’s cabin in Florence County where a SWAT team helped take them into custody.
James admitted he was with the boy and then told police the same story, that Escalante had fallen down the stairs. He repeatedly denied causing the injuries. When pressed, he told police they were not going to get a “fake confession,” the complaint states.
David VanderLeest told police James told him the same version of events about the stair fall.
Escalante was flown to Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee where he was pronounced dead two days after his injuries happened.
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.
The injuries were not consistent with a fall down the stairs, a doctor told police.
Family of Escalante says James VanderLeest is the ex-boyfriend of Escalante’s mother. However, he is not Escalante’s father.
At previous court hearings, both VanderLeests disputed the account offered by police and prosecutors.
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