KISSING his baby son Dawson on the head Adam McKinney watched as he peacefully slept on his chest.
“I’ll see you later buddy,” Adam said, “I love you.”
Danielle Radue was found guilty of killing her son DawsonCredit: Supplied
His dad Adam McKinney had been out of the house for six minutes when Dawson’s injuries were causedCredit: Supplied
The dad then handed his boy back to his mother Danielle Radue, believing he was in the safest of hands.
But Adam, from the US, could never have imagined the devastating harm she would be capable of in the six minutes after he left.
“In just six minutes Danielle fractured our son’s skull and killed him,” Adam says.
“Selfish, spoiled and self-centred she wasn’t cut out to be a mum.”
Adam, 31, joined the Marines fresh out of high school and met Radue at 18 in 2012.
“I was a cocky young bloke, pretty pleased with myself in my dress uniform,” he says.
“But Danielle didn’t care whether I was a Marine, she just wanted to know if I was good person.
“She was independent, playful and ambitious where as I told her all I wanted out of life was a dirt bike, a dog and kid.”
In 2015, after three years together, Adam married Radue and eleven months later she fell pregnant.
“Danielle was studying for an MBA and told me it wasn’t the ‘right time’ for us to start a family,” Adam says.
“I reassured her that we’d figure it out but at seven weeks she aborted our baby without telling me.
“I was devastated but loved Danielle and forgave her.”
Shortly after Adam left the Marines and got a job inspecting hospital equipment.
“My battered old pick up needed replacing so I traded up,” Adam says.
“Danielle insisted she needed a new car too but hers was almost brand new.
“Strangely enough, in the next few months she had three crashes, writing her car off in the third.
“She got what she wanted, and I realised image meant everything to Danielle.
“I earned a good living and Danielle, who worked in sales support, spent it on things to show off.
Dawson was just two months old when he died from his head injuriesCredit: Supplied
Adam had been living with his dad (pictured with Dawson) after divorcing DanielleCredit: Supplied
“She insisted we build a new home on an executive estate, rather than buy a cheaper home in the countryside we could afford.
“The day we moved in she splashed photos all over social media, it made me uncomfortable.”
One evening, Adam got into a fight at a bar when he was jumped by six guys.
He was left with a broken jaw that required surgery leaving him in hospital for three days.
“Danielle visited once and the night I was discharged she came home drunk from a work event and passed out on the bed,” Adam says.
“I took her shoes off and put her phone on charge as a message came through, which read ‘I enjoyed kissing you tonight.’”
After finding out about Radue’s affair, Adam moved back in with his dad, occasionally popping back to Radue’s home to collect his belongings.
While Adam admits the visits were volatile, on one occasion he ended up sleeping with Radue and she fell pregnant once more.
“She told me that if I left she would have another abortion,” Adam says.
“I couldn’t lose another child, so, I stayed even though I felt she was controlling and manipulating me.
“The way I saw it it was the honorable thing to do.”
Radue delivered Dawson McKinney at 11.28pm on March 9th 2020.
“He was born with a shock of black hair sticking up in a Mohican,” Adam recalls.
“Holding him for the first time I was mesmerised.
“The abortion, Danielle’s affair, none of that mattered to me anymore.
“My job is to raise this little human to be a good man, I thought, bursting into tears of joy.
“Danielle was struggling to adjust to motherhood, but I thought she loved and cared for Dawson.”
On May 11th, 2020, the day after Mother’s Day, Adam came home from work for lunch and to help Radue.
Exactly 19minutes later Danielle called, panicked explaining that Dawson was throwing up and choking
Adam McKinney
“Dawson slept for a while on my chest before I left for work, telling him I loved him on my way out,” Adam says.
“Exactly 19minutes later Danielle called, panicked explaining that Dawson was throwing up and choking.”
Adam arrived at the hospital before the ambulance while Radue arrived with a police officer and Dawson was brought in.
“He was unconscious, but he looked fine, and I tried to reassure myself that he would be discharged in a couple of days,” Adam says.
Shortly after, doctors made the decision to transfer Dawson to a bigger hospital which is when Radue made an alarming confession.
Adam says: “On the way to the hospital she told me that the night before our dog had jumped on the couch and knocked Dawson onto the floor.
“She told me that he had started ‘acting funny’ afterwards and my blood ran cold.
“I knew in that moment she had hurt him.”
At the hospital the parents were told that Dawson’s skull had been fractured with Radue repeating the story she had told Adam.
“Doctors told me that it was unlikely that Dawson would survive the injury,” Adam recalls.
“I wept, I couldn’t believe what was happening.”
A detective took Radue away to be interviewed while Adam stayed with Dawson.
Three hours later, the officer returned and explained that what happened to Dawson had taken place that morning.
“Apparently, six minutes after I’d left home Danielle had run screaming to a neighbour with Dawson,” Adam says.
“The neighbour resuscitated him, then nearby firefighters did too and when paramedics arrived, he’d been brought back to life a third time.”
Radue was arrested as doctors told Adam that Dawson had severe brain damage and there was no hope.
“I prayed, made deals with the devil and God, anything to spare my son,” Adam says.
The next day Radue was released as enquiries continued but a court order prevented her from seeing Dawson in hospital.
“I got it lifted for an hour so she could say goodbye to him because it was the right thing to do,” Adam says.
“On May 14th she came to his room with a police officer, we didn’t speak but she told him she loved him and that she was sorry.
WHAT IS THE ALFORD PLEA?
An Alford plea is when a defendant can plead guilty yet still maintain their innocence and not admit to the crime they are accused of committing.
During their plea, a defendant acknowledges that there’s enough evidence to convict them at trial, but chooses under these circumstances to be treated as guilty and move forward to sentencing.
The plea gets its name from the 1970 case North Carolina v. Alford, in which the defendant, Henry Alford, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in order to avoid capital punishment for the crime he was initially charged with – first degree murder.
At the time, Alford argued that his plea was “involuntary because its principal motivation was fear of the death penalty.”
Consequentially, a lengthy series of proceedings ensued, resulting in a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
It stated: “An individual accused of crime may voluntarily, knowingly, and understandingly consent to the imposition of a prison sentence even if he is unwilling or unable to admit his participation in the acts constituting the crime”.
The next day Dawson’s life support was due to be switched off and Adam was allowed to hold him one last time.
“She passed me my boy and I lay on a bed cradling him in my arms,” he says.
“I told him how proud I was of him, then I changed him and gave him a bath.
“Just before 6pm his life support was turned off and 40 minutes later, my son took his last breath in his daddy’s arms.
“Overwhelmed, I had a panic attack and the nurses thought I was having a stroke.
“To be honest, I wished I was dead.”
Radue was rearrested, charged with first degree murder and a court refused her request to attend Dawson’s funeral.
I believe my son was an angel and that smile was Dawson’s gift to me
Adam McKinney
Covid meant funerals were limited to ten mourners, but the rules were especially waived, and the family had a hundred mourners at Dawson’s service.
An autopsy revealed his skull was fractured by violent force, Adam attended all of the court hearings where Radue denied deliberately hurting him.
A few days before trial in April 2022 Radue finally admitted first degree murder.
But it was an Alford plea, meaning she accepted prosecutors had evidence to find her guilty of murder, but she didn’t have to admit to it.
“I was torn,” Adam admits.
“The plea guaranteed a life sentence, but Danielle still wasn’t accepting responsibility and didn’t have to say what happened.”
In June, on bail, Radue married her then boyfriend before her sentencing the following month.
Judge Patrick Miller rejected claims from the defense that Adam had been abusive.
“Frankly, today I still don’t know what happened that day,” he said referring to her attack on Dawson.
Radue got a life sentence with 18 years non-parole.
Adam has since remarried and has a daughter, two-and-half, and a son, two months.
“My daughter knows Dawson is in heaven and says he visits her in her dreams,” he says.
“Before our son was born, I asked if she thought we’d have a boy or girl.
“She told me she knew it was a boy because Dawson had told her and he’d also told her he’s had the best daddy.
“I believe my son was an angel and that smile was Dawson’s gift to me.
“It is a memory that’s kept me going in my darkest hours and his way of saying, I love you daddy, and everything is going to be okay.”
Adam has two more children but says Dawson remains in his thoughtsCredit: Supplied
Adam says that Danielle wasn’t ‘cut out to be a mum’Credit: Supplied
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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