The Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office and the lawyer for a 24-year-old Kenosha man charged in the 2019 death of 2-year-old Matthew Bolinski announced a plea agreement Monday.
Hunter Jones, who has been in the Kenosha County Jail since July 3, 2019, on a $500,000 bond, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of felony second-degree reckless homicide, which carries a maximum prison term of 25 years and a $100,000 fine.
Both sides will be free to argue Jones’ sentence. In addition, Jones will pay restitution of $6,025.59.
Jones initially had been charged with first-degree reckless homicide. The new charge carries a maximum initial period of 15 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision.
Circuit Court Judge Bruce E. Schroeder ordered a pre-sentence investigation during Monday’s brief hearing. Jones will be sentenced Oct. 12 at 2 p.m.
The child’s father, Stephen Bolinski, who appeared during the online hearing, requested that the sentencing be held in person.
Schroeder said that can be accommodated, and added that anyone attending will be required to wear masks as part of the COVID-19 guidelines.
According to the criminal complaint:
Jones’ wife, Harmony Jones, operated an in-home day care from the couple’s home. On the day the child died, his mother had dropped him off at 2 p.m., and at about 5 p.m., Harmony Jones went to pick up dinner, leaving three children in the day care and the Joneses’ two children at the house.
The defendant told investigators he put Bolinski down for a nap in a playpen, and that the toddler at first climbed out, fell and hit his head, then went to sleep when he put him back in the playpen.
Hunter Jones later told investigators that, when his wife was home, he went to check on the child and found that he was wrapped in a sheet and was not breathing.
The complaint states when paramedics arrived, the toddler was cool to the touch and appeared to have been dead for about an hour.
A doctor with the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office reported that Bolinski had visible contusions and abrasions on his forehead, cheeks, behind his ear, on his neck and his mouth.
The doctor counted 18 total contusions on the child’s face. The cause of death was listed as undetermined, the “likely cause of death is asphyxia” and that the manner of death was homicide.
HISTORIC PHOTO
Horse-drawn carts and a crowd of employees stand along the lakefront during the April 1892 fire that burned down the Simmons Manufacturing Co. factory.
HISTORIC PHOTO
This is the N.R. Allen’s Sons Tannery in 1870, just a few years after being established. The business grew into one of the largest tanneries in the country. This photograph was likely taken from the top of the Pennoyer Water Cure, a health resort in Kenosha.
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Employees at the N.R. Allen’s Sons Tannery roll out strips of sole leather, circa 1910.
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An employee treats wagon wheels at the Bain Wagon Co. The Bain Wagon Co. produced wagons and wagon components from 1852 to 1926.
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This is a gathering of 25-year employees in 1922. The Bain Wagon Co. produced wagons and wagon components from 1852 to 1926.
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This is an 85-foot Pirsch snorkel truck built for the Kenosha Fire Department. On May 14, 1964, the city of Kenosha became the first city in Wisconsin to own a snorkel, a fire engine with an elevated platform on an extendable arm.
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Workers man the automatic weaving machines at the Simmons Manufacturing factory in the early 20th century.
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This photo of the Redeker & English delivery van was taken between 1880 and 1914. Redeker & English was a hardware firm that was located in an adjoining building to the First National Bank.
HISTORIC PHOTO
This is the interior of a storage room at the Bain Wagon Co. factory. The company was founded by Edward Bain in 1852 and closed its doors in Kenosha in 1926. The last wagon made at the Kenosha factory was sold to a Kenosha resident.
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This ship is docked in front of the N.R. Allen’s Sons Tannery, looking north across the Pike Creek, circa 1900.
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School children enjoy a hay rack ride. The photograph was taken between 1880 and 1914.
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A man waters plants in the greenhouse at the Zalmon G. Simmons residence.
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The Pennoyer Sanitarium stood where St. Catherine Commons is now located. It was built in 1880 and razed around 1930.
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This YMCA building stood at the corner of Main and South (Sixth Avenue and 59th Street), where Friendship Park is today. In 1913, the building was sold to Fred Larson to convert into retail space and was then known as the Regnar Building.
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Two Pirsch open cab aerial ladder trucks extend their ladders, circa 1930. Nicholas Pirsch began producing fire engines and ladders in 1857. By 1970, the Pirsch Co. became the largest manufacturer that focused exclusively on the production of fire equipment. The company stopped operations in 1986 and claimed bankruptcy in 1987.
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This view from Lake Michigan shows the Simmons Manufacturing Co. factory still smoking after the fire in April 1892.
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A spotlight shines on a 1956 Hudson on center stage at an American Motors Corp. exhibition introducing the new AMC automobile and Kelvinator appliance lines.
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This a view from the Allen Tannery chimney looking east. The Allen Tannery was located where the Kenosha Municipal Building now stands.
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Workers pave Park Avenue, now Seventh Avenue, sometime between the years 1896 and 1906.
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Frank Lyman and party catch frogs. Lyman was the son of Frederick Lyman, who came to Kenosha in 1843 and was a wholesaler and retailer of boots and shoes.
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This view shows the Kipp Montegomery Co., a lumber dealer, and the Simmons Manufacturing Co.
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Nash Motors Building 45, Service and Export, is shown being constructed in May 1952. The view is looking east on 52nd Street across the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Electric Railroad tracks.
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Hides stacked and hanging in a dry-loft of the N. R. Allen Sons Tannery. Between 1,200 and 1,500 hides were dried and sorted daily. The photograph was taken circa 1920.
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The Chicago Northwestern Depot stood at the same spot the current station exists. The station was built in 1899 and was raze to make way for the current station, that was built in 1948.
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Employees operate sole leather rolling machines at the N.R. Allen’s Sons Tannery, circa 1910.
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Tests are done with a 1915 Jeffery Quad loaded with bricks in a muddy field. Thousands of the trucks were ordered by the French and British governments for World War I.
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In this photo titled “Castaways,” a group sits on a rock along the Kenosha lakeshore. The photo was taken between 1880 and 1914.
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Golfers enjoy a round on a course that existed in the late 1800s on what is now the Allendale neighborhood.
HISTORIC PHOTO
This view looks north across Pike Creek at a partially wrecked N. R. Allen’s Sons Company factory building in 1937. After the tannery had gone out of business in the 1920s, the buildings were used for other purposes, including the office and storerooms of the Works and Progress Administration. The Schlitz Hotel can be seen in the background.
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Workers pose for a photograph in the tire department at the Thomas B. Jeffery automobile plant in the 1910s.
Jones
Dan Truttschel
Reporter
