Tokio, North Dakota, man pleads guilty to all counts in federal case arising from his child’s death

NORTH DAKOTA — A Tokio, North Dakota, man pleaded guilty Monday, April 14, to four federal charges arising from the 2022 death of his 3-year-old daughter.

Austin Ray Lester, 29, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, assault of a child with a dangerous weapon and two counts of child neglect.

Lester and Krissy Louise Hinsley — referred to in court documents as the child's stepmother — showed "wanton and reckless disregard for human life amounting to gross negligence," according to the indictment filed against the couple.

Failure to obtain timely medical care for the young child — who was left alone and able to access acetaminophen — caused her death, the indictment said.

A plea agreement filed in the case gives more details about the events leading up to the young girl's death. It says that, on Aug. 23, 2022, Spirit Lake EMS was dispatched to a Tokio residence, where they found the child unresponsive in a basement bedroom.

Lester said "the child may have ingested too much cold medicine."

Though the couple at first said they had left the girl with another adult, Lester later admitted he'd left her home alone, and said this was something he did regularly. He also admitted to striking his daughter with a back scratcher, causing her to sustain bodily injury.

Four additional bottles of over-the-counter medication were found in the room the girl had been left alone in.

Despite knowing the child had ingested two bottles of medication, Lester and Hinsley did not seek medical care for almost 24 hours, the agreement said. The evening before, she was sick and throwing up; in the morning, she became unresponsive.

The agreement says Hinsley told Lester to take the girl to the hospital, but he declined; she did not do it either.

The child was first treated at CHI St. Alexius Hospital in Devils Lake, then flown to Sanford Children's Hospital in Fargo. It was determined that she was in liver failure from consuming too much cold medicine, the agreement said.

She was transported to the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital in Minneapolis and placed on a waiting list for a liver transplant. However, while at the facility, it was determined the child had no brain activity. She was taken off life support and died Aug. 27, 2022.

An autopsy determined her death was caused by "complications of multisystem failure of uncertain etiology," the agreement said. She suffered liver failure followed by a global hypoxic-ischemic neuronal injury. She also had numerous injuries that could have been from blunt force, but none would have contributed to her death, according to the agreement.

It was difficult for medical professionals to determine when the child ingested the medication, but the levels as well as her condition were found to be inconsistent with Lester's account of what happened. Regardless of when and how, earlier medical intervention could have prevented her death, the agreement said.

Lester's assault charge has a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a mandatory minimum of 10 years. The involuntary manslaughter charge has a maximum eight-year sentence, and child neglect has a five-year maximum.

His plea agreement says the prosecution agrees to recommend a 15-year sentence. This would include 10 years for the assault charge and five years for the remaining crimes.

The prosecution will also recommend that Lester be required to serve the maximum term of supervised release and ordered to complete a parental capacity evaluation, mental health evaluation and anger management assessment. He would also be required to complete treatment recommendations made as a result of said evaluations and assessments.

Also as part of the plea agreement, the prosecution will agree not to charge Lester in an investigation into the sexual abuse of two children. No further information on this subject is provided.

Lester agreed to share responsibility with Hinsley for paying the North Dakota Department of Human Services $62,553.39.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Aug. 5.

Hinsley's plea and sentencing hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. July 28. Her plea agreement, which calls for guilty pleas to two counts of child neglect, says the prosecution and defendant have agreed to recommend a seven-year prison sentence.

The plea agreement calls for her to be on supervised release for three years after her imprisonment, and complete the same evaluations, assessments and recommended treatments as Lester.