Brandon Toseland
A Las Vegan man already behind bars for allegedly murdering his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son and then storing the boy’s body in a freezer is now facing additional child abuse charges.
Brandon Toseland, 36, was arrested in February of this year after his girlfriend’s young daughter delivered a note to her elementary school teacher saying that she was being “held against her will.” Those notes were hidden in the 7-year-old girl’s shoe by her mother.
The defendant was initially charged with two counts of kidnapping in the first degree. Toseland was later assessed a charge of open murder, after the body of Mason Dominguez was allegedly discovered in a trash bag in a freezer in his garage.
Mason Dominguez via GoFundMe
In April, Toseland was indicted on 10 separate charges including murder, child abuse, kidnapping, and domestic violence.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Fleck said the victim died after a “constellation of internal injuries” to his small intestine caused by blunt force trauma to his abdomen, according to comments reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Additionally, the prosecutor said the boy suffered a cut to one eye, a bite mark on one arm, abrasions, “throughout his head,” as well as bruising on his torso, abdomen, and extremities.
In those initial charges, the defendant reportedly stands accused of “striking and/or kicking” the boy, or causing the boy to hit an “unknown object,” or of “shaking and/or squeezing” him.
On Friday, the grand jury added two additional charges related to the girl, according to court records obtained by Las Vegas, Nevada-based CBS affiliate KLAS. Those additional charges alleged that Toseland choked the girl with his arm and, in a separate incident last year, choked her with a vacuum cord – before her brother was killed.
According to the TV station, Toseland was arrested after a traffic stop in February of this year. Officers allegedly found a pair of handcuffs where the boy’s mother had been sitting in the car. The defendant was also allegedly in possession of this then-girlfriend’s phone.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the woman reportedly told police Toseland was her live-in boyfriend but said he had, over time, become physically abusive and that his abuse led him to keep her against her will for weeks. She also reportedly said that she had not seen her preschool-aged son in several weeks and that Toseland would not allow her to leave the house alone or enter certain parts of the home, specifically, the garage.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Lieutenant Ray Spencer said investigators believe the boy had been dead since “early December” of 2021 according to the Review-Journal.
A GoFundMe for the deceased boy remembers him sadly and fondly:
Our loved one who had passed away was super bright, very intelligent, sweet , outgoing & could have been more! We wanted them to know they were so loved, his memory will always be alive through family and friends.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are reportedly considering the death penalty if Toseland is convicted.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report
[images: Dominguez via GoFundMe; Toseland via Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department]