By Sean Pearson
Homer Tribune
When Alaska State Trooper Ryan Browning arrived at Chapman Elementary School on Nov. 16, he was relatively surprised by the calmness of the 5-year-old boy he had been called out to interview.
“We got a call from OCS that Monday morning advising that a student at the Anchor Point school had arrived with burns to his face and head,” Browning relayed. “When I got there, I saw the boy had some pretty bad burns on the left side of his face.”
Browning said OCS advised him that the child informed his teachers that his “daddy burned him” and that he could not talk about it.
“The left side of his face, including the bridge of his nose, inside his lower nostril, his upper eyelid and tip of his earlobe were burned,” Browning said. “It looked the worst on his right temple, because you could see where it had started to blister up quite a bit.
The hair on the left side of his head was burned, as well as the hair behind his ear and on the back of his skull.”
Browning said the kindergartner claimed he was playing in his room over the weekend when his head caught fire.
“He said he wasn’t in any trouble when his head caught fire, and it was a ‘practical joke gone wrong,’” Browning said. “What kind of 5-year-old talks like that?”
Following Browning’s investigation, troopers arrested 32-year-old Stephen Ray Dilley II and Jonathon Michael Miller, 29, both of Anchorage. The two men said they were babysitting the child the Friday night before when the incident happened.
According to Trooper Browning’s affidavit, Dilley stated that he and Miller were outside smoking on the porch. When they came inside, he grabbed a compressed can of starter fluid, and reportedly stated, “You know what would be funny?”
He handed Miller the can, who reportedly responded with, “Do you know how much trouble I could get in for this?”
Miller then allegedly called for the young boy, who was playing in his room some six feet away.
Dilley stated the boy opened the door, and Miller ignited the spray with a lighter pointed at him. When they saw the boy’s head was on fire, they doused the flames with their hands.
Dilley said he didn’t think the spray would go that far as a flamethrower.
Browning went on question Miller, who stated he was using a “redneck flamethrower” with brake cleaner because it “makes a really controlled flame.”
Miller then allegedly stated that he had been trying to toughen up the boy, and that the best way to do that was to “scare the s*** out of them when they don’t see it coming.”
When asked by Browning why he declined to seek medical treatment for the boy following the injury, Miller reportedly said, “Why go make bills for yourself over little things?”
When Browning was asked what he was thinking after looking over the child’s burns and speaking with the two men allegedly responsible for the injuries, he replied, “It wasn’t good, but I love my job.”
The child was treated at the emergency room, where he was reported to have suffered from second-degree burns to his face and head.
He and four other children in the house are now in state custody. Browning said there were a total of five children in the house, all of them age 6 or younger.
“They claimed it was a ‘sober day,’ when the event occurred, but there were beer cans everywhere in the house,” Browning said.
“Besides, who knows, a sober day might mean .21 for some people.”
The two men were charged with felony assault and reckless endangerment. The mother, Belinda Russell, was charged with endangering the welfare of a minor, as she had filed a temporary restraining order against Dilley, but had let him back into the house with her children. Browning said additional charges may be filed.
“The bottom line was, they were bored. They thought it would be funny to scare the kid by shooting a ball of fire at his head,” Browning said. “I don’t get it. What kind of person does that?”
