Brandon Hayes charged with 9 felony counts in the beating death of Dominick Calhoun.flv

Charges have been filed against Brandon Hayes, who is accused of beating a 4-year-old boy to death.

Investigators say Dominick Calhoun was declared brain dead Sunday at Hurley Medical Center.

Sheriff Robert Pickell says the youngster endured "torturous beatings" beginning Thursday. All of it, according to authorities, came at the hands of Hayes, who was his mother's boyfriend.

Hayes, 24, faces nine charges, including premeditated murder and torture. That torture charge is not commonly issued, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, but one that was absolutely necessary in this case, Leyton said.

"This was simply a vicious killing, as bad as anything you could possibly imagine," Leyton said.

Investigators say the beatings began Thursday when the boy urinated on himself as he sat on the couch, eating his breakfast.

"Little Dominick met his boogie man, and that was defendant Hayes," Pickell said. "Dominick urinated on himself while he was eating breakfast on the sofa. Hayes savagely beat him about the head with his fists, again and again, and then kicked him in the head, again and again, trying to give a sense of discipline to little Dominick."

Pickell says Hayes continued the abuse into the next day, beating the boy's mother as well.

Investigators say the boy and his badly-injured mother were discovered Sunday when her sister came to buy drugs from the couple. A grandparent was notified, and he contacted police. Dominick was taken to Hurley, declared brain dead and put on life support.

Investigators say Hayes was angry and no longer wanted to help raise the little boy. "He was tired of raising little Dominick. He was nothing more than a little crack head and that he deserved to die," Pickell said, referring to the way, investigators say, Hayes felt about the boy.

Dominick, likely unconscious by Saturday, endured much of the same, investigators said.

His mother did try to protect the toddler at some point by laying on top of him, according to authorities.

"The pictures are indescribable," according to Leyton.

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• Brandon Joshua-Frederick Hayes
• Dominick Calhoun
• Sheriff Robert Pickell