A 42-year-old man is accused of torturing and viciously beating his former girlfriend’s two sons, leading to the death of one of them, a severely autistic 18-year-old, in April 2014. Their mother reported her son’s killing months later, after she was able to flee the relationship.
King County prosecutors filed numerous felony charges — including homicide by abuse and second-degree murder — against a 42-year-old man on Thursday, accusing him of torturing and killing his former girlfriend’s severely autistic son last April.
Matt Christenson has been in jail since December on assault and harassment charges for allegedly beating and threatening to kill another of his girlfriend’s sons, who is 14.
A Superior Court judge increased bail for Christenson — originally held in lieu of $500,000 bail — to $1.5 million on Thursday in light of new information connecting him to the death last year of 18-year-old Otto Smith, court records show.
Smith and his younger brother, who lived with their mother in an apartment near Auburn, have different last names.
Three days before Christmas, the boys’ mother arrived by ambulance at Tacoma General Hospital, claiming to be a kidnap victim before admitting to police that she was trying to flee an abusive relationship with Christenson, charging papers say. She told a social worker Christenson had killed Smith and that she had helped him cover up the crime, according to charges.
Those allegations were reported to the King County sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit.
The woman met Christenson through an ad posted on Craigslist in December 2013, charging papers say. Soon after, he moved into her two-bedroom apartment along with his 20-year-old son, the papers say.
Beginning in January 2014, Smith and his younger brother were subjected to vicious beatings, forced exercise and hourslong ice baths, say the charges, which also accuse Christenson of withholding food from the brothers, shaking cayenne pepper into their eyes and zapping Smith with a stun gun.
Smith was also forced to wear garbage bags as diapers and the younger boy was required to sleep on the bathroom floor, the charges say.
In March 2014, the boys’ mother took her sons to a children’s hospital on a day when Christenson was away from the apartment, though charging papers don’t indicate which hospital. Smith had suffered increasingly severe beatings and his mother took him to the hospital because she feared for his health and safety, but told hospital staff Smith had been harming himself, the papers say.
He spent several days in the hospital, then another two weeks at a children’s respite-care facility in Yakima, according to the charges.
Smith was released from the care facility on April 10, 2014, and died two days after returning to the family’s apartment, the charges say.
Christenson is accused of pulling Smith out of an ice bath, binding his legs and arms, shoving a sock in his mouth and wrapping his head in duct tape, according to the charges. Smith’s mother found him underneath a large sofa chair while Christenson sat a few feet away, drinking beer and smoking marijuana, the charges say.
The mother removed the chair, then unwrapped the duct tape and took the sock out of her son’s mouth — but Smith “took his last breath” while lying on the living-room floor, according to the charges. She washed the tape residue from Smith’s face, then she and Christenson drove Smith to a hospital, where the mother told staff Smith had fallen down some stairs, the charges say.
The following month, the mother sent her younger son to live with the boy’s grandparents.
It took the mother “eight more months to extricate herself from the control of Matt Christenson and report the assaults and torture of both sons, and the death of Otto, to law enforcement,” charging papers say.
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