Sandy couple charged with attempted murder, child torture after 3-year-old life-flighted

SANDY, Utah (ABC4) — The Sandy Couple who were arrested last week

after a 3-year-old child was life-flighted to the hospital following an alleged domestic violence incident have been charged with multiple felonies, including child torture.

Amber Leary, 29, and her boyfriend, Scott Belone, 28, have both been charged with attempted aggravated murder, aggravated child abuse, and child torture. All counts are first-degree felonies.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced the charges on Wednesday, July 9.

According to the DA’s office, on the morning of June 28, Leary reported to police that her three-year-old child had been assaulted. She directed officers to the basement, where they found the child unconscious but breathing. Officers reported that the child was bruised on her face and all over her body, and her skin was a bluish-green color due to a lack of oxygen.

The child was transported to the hospital via Life Flight. A doctor who examined her found a complex skull fracture, among other injuries that indicated “inflicted trauma on more than one occasion.”

“It is over a protracted period of time where this child is undergoing physical trauma and abuse,” District Attorney Sim Gill told ABC4.com.

Belone told detectives that the child had recently regressed in her potty training and began going to the bathroom in the corner, according to charging documents. He also claimed that the child had become combative at times, biting and scratching.

At around 4:30 a.m. on June 28, the child got out of bed and went to the bathroom in the corner. Belone then woke Leary up to help him clean up, and he told police that around 5:30, he picked the child up and threw her on the mattress. Reportedly, the child bounced, and her head and face hit the wall.

Belone told police that he checked on her and said that her breathing was fine and her heart was steady, but that she wasn’t “really responding.”

Leary left for work, but Belone called her and told her to come home and that they needed to “fix this,” according to charging documents. Belone then called his mother, who is a nurse practitioner, for advice.

Belone’s mother asked to see the child on FaceTime. At first, Belone refused to FaceTime and left the room, but Leary started the call after he left the room. Belone’s mother saw the child unresponsive and told the couple that they needed to take her to the hospital.

“If you don’t take her, you will both go to jail,” Leary recounted Belone’s mother saying during the FaceTime call to police afterward. Leary said she told Belone’s mother that her son wouldn’t let her call 911.

“If you call, I’ll go to jail, you don’t have any money, you don’t have any friends,” Belone allegedly told Leary.

Leary asked him, “What if [the child] dies?” and Belone responded with, “She’ll be fine.”

Belone told police that he believes his mother is the one who called EMS, but Leary stated that she called 911 after telling Belone she needed to go outside to smoke. Leary also texted Belone’s mother their address.

Reportedly, Belone admitted to police that he spanked the child in the past, in addition to using an open hand to strike her high on the cheekbone. He also admitted that he struck the child with a closed fist “a couple times.” He told police that he punched the child in the temple in response to her scratching him.

Allegedly, Leary was present during several of these incidents, and Belone said that she never physically got between him and the child.

Leary told police that before June, Belone was “pleasant and nice,” but he grew angrier about potty training and hated it when the child cried. She also said that the previous Sunday, she received a text from Belone while she was at work that stated, “I am going to murder her.” A few hours later, she received another text that said, “I am going to crack her skull.”

Reportedly, he also sent her a text that read, “I’m finished with her, we can’t have a life together with her being like this, and now hearing her voice makes me want to kill her.” When she got home from work that day, Leary found her child with her eyes bruised and swollen shut and with a large bruise on the side of her head.

The Sandy Police Department told ABC4.com that the child is still in the hospital in critical condition. According to charging documents, she is in a medically induced coma.

The DA requested that Belone and Leary be held without bail, arguing that they are a danger to the community or likely to flee the state if released on bail.

According to court documents, while Belone allegedly abused the child, Leary “made the choice to watch the abuse happen, made the choice to allow the abuse to happen, made the choice not to seek medical care when needed, and made the choice not to seek help from professionals or law enforcement despite the victim’s extreme visible injuries.”