A DeKalb father and registered sex offender has been charged with first-degree murder in his 5-month-old son’s death, a day after the baby was hospitalized suffering significant facial injuries while in the man’s care, authorities said.

Dominic G. Larson, 30, also is charged with aggravated battery to a child, reckless conduct and misdemeanor endangering the life of a child. If convicted of the murder of a child, a Class X felony, he faces 30 to 60 years in prison.

Authorities were first alerted to a possible child abuse case Monday by hospital workers at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb.

DeKalb police said in a news release that they received a call regarding an infant who “had been rushed to the emergency room with severe facial injuries.” The baby, a boy, was flown to a Chicago-area hospital because of the severity of their injuries, according to records filed in court Wednesday.

DeKalb County Associate Judge Sarah Gallagher Chami granted the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s Office’s petition to deny Larson pretrial release at a hearing Wednesday, citing in part the man’s criminal history.

Larson has been registered as a sex offender in Illinois since Aug. 7, 2020, in connection with a 2017 aggravated criminal sexual abuse conviction in Lee County. That victim was 5, and Larson was 24, according to the Illinois State Police’s sex offender database.

He was charged in March 2018 on the 2017 abuse case and pleaded guilty May 21, 2020, according to Lee County court records. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2020, records show. Larson also has a 2018 DUI conviction and a 2023 fleeing to elude conviction out of Ogle County, records show.

He’s being held at the DeKalb County Jail in Sycamore and will next appear in court at 9 a.m. on March 30 in courtroom 220.

The infant died Tuesday at Loyola University Medical Center after suffering a fracture to the skull and brain hemorrhages, records show.

The baby’s mother was at work at the time the child was injured, police said in court records.

Man had history of sexual, physical abuse, records allege

In Gallagher Chami’s ruling on Wednesday, she made note of Larson’s criminal history. She cited his 2020 conviction of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, said he had five prior failures to appear in court, and an order of protection that was filed against him in 2025.

In that order, filed in DeKalb County court on March 10, 2025, a woman said that Larson was a “chronic drug and alcohol abuser,” and said she knew he was a registered sex offender. In the order, granted by Associate Judge Stephanie Klein on March 10, the woman also alleged Larson had been physically violent and verbally and sexually abusive toward her, according to the court filing. The woman alleged that Larson had a history of physical and verbal abuse in past relationships.

The order was granted an extension on June 13, 2025, but not long after the woman filed to dismiss the protective order, records show.

Circuit Court Judge Marcy Buick terminated the order at the woman’s request on July 25, 2025.

‘Erratic’ behavior at hospital, police allege

Gallagher Chami also noted in her ruling that medical staff told police the baby’s injuries weren’t consistent with what Larson told them.

Larson told a hospital security officer that the infant was running at home and “ran face-first into a wall,” police wrote in court records. But hours earlier, he’d texted the baby’s mother, telling her that the child fell off the bed while asleep and “his nose is busted pretty good,” court filings state.

Larson then brought the baby around DeKalb to run errands, he told police. But when they arrived home hours later, Larson saw his son was unconscious, court records state. He then drove the baby to Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital on Monday evening.

Gallagher Chami described Larson’s behavior at Kishwaukee Hospital on Monday as “erratic.”

Police said area license plate reader cameras picked up a 2008 Honda Accord – the same one that Larson used to bring the baby to Kishwaukee Hospital – around the DeKalb area at multiple places between 12:45 p.m. and shortly after 3 p.m.

Police responded to the hospital at 4:19 p.m. Monday.

During the Wednesday hearing, prosecutor Brooks Locke argued that what Larson told a hospital security officer had happened to the baby was “a completely implausible explanation for the child’s injuries.”

An attorney with DeKalb County Public Defender’s Office, which represented Larson, argued that Larson’s account of what caused the infant’s injuries was the same when speaking with multiple officers: Larson alleged his son had fallen off a bed and injured his face.

DeKalb County sheriff’s deputies interacted with Larson at the DeKalb hospital and said he appeared to be intoxicated, refused orders and resisted attempts to be placed in custody, police wrote in court filings.

Larson also was charged with three counts of aggravated battery of a police officer, a Class 2 felony; one count of aggravated resisting a police officer, a Class 4 felony; and one count of disorderly conduct, in connection to his interactions with sheriff’s deputies.

Deputies alleged that Larson ran from the hospital to a nearby outpatient clinic and began yelling at employees while deputies attempted to hold him for questioning.

Police alleged that at about noon Monday, Larson texted the baby’s mother and said “you think I am punching [infant’s name] but I am not, and [infant’s name] looks terrible,” police wrote in court records. She replied to Larson, “that is why we have to be careful,” court records state.

The mother said the baby didn’t have any injuries when she left him with his father about 9:30 a.m. Monday. The three of them had gone to a WIC appointment earlier that morning, according to court records. A WIC worker told police the child looked healthy at that point.

On life support by Tuesday and not expected to survive if taken off it, the child died at 5:45 p.m. at Loyola University Medical Center in Cook County. His mother was with him by then, records show.

This story was updated at 5 p.m. Feb. 25, 2026. Further updates could occur.