Fridley man sentenced to 25 years in prison for death of 5-month-old son

FRIDLEY, Minn. — A 24-year-old Fridley man was sentenced Monday to more than 25 years in prison for death of her baby son early last year.

Aaron Rathke was convicted of second-degree murder in May.

According to court documents, Rathke took her child, Kaiden Rathke, to the Fridley Police Department on March 1, 2023, after the boy stopped breathing. The boy had no pulse and later died at the hospital.

Rathke told law enforcement he was on his way home from work and was changing his child's diaper when he started vomiting and stopped breathing. Rathke said he then pushed on his baby's chest, but was unable to get him to breathe again.

Documents indicate Rathke said the child's mother called him earlier in the day to tell him his eyes were rolling back and he had stopped breathing. Rathke said when his girlfriend pushed on the baby's chest, he started breathing again.

He said he did not call an ambulance because there had been previous incidents with the baby where they were able to “bring him back”. He added that the baby “sometimes forgot to breathe.”

A few days later, he provided another statement to law enforcement in which he said he sometimes hugged his child “a little too hard” but denied ever dropping or hitting the baby against anything.

The child's mother said in a statement that the baby stopped breathing around noon that day. When she sat up and pressed on his chest, he started breathing again.

In August, the child's mother told police that Rathke had killed their child. In late September, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner determined the baby's cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries and the manner of death was homicide.

In October, the child's mother told law enforcement she was initially afraid to come forward because Rathke had been violent toward her, according to the charges. She said Rathke would put their child to sleep by putting pressure on his throat, causing him to pass out. She added that she saw Rathke “choking” their baby when he was three months old.

Rathke was sentenced to 306 months in prison with 256 days credit for time served.

For anonymous and confidential help, people can call National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224.