James VanderLeest walks into Brown County court, September 12, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – James VanderLeest pleaded not guilty Friday to allegedly causing the death of Leo Escalante, 2. No trial date was set.
VanderLeest, 22, faces reckless homicide and other counts for the June 22 death at a home on Green Bay’s east side. Escalante is the son of James VanderLeest’s ex-girlfriend, but VanderLeest not the boy’s father.
A plea hearing or status conference was scheduled for Dec. 1.
The judge also ordered that VanderLeest not have contact with the child’s mother.
His father, David VanderLeest, 48, faces counts of aiding a felon and obstruction. He is scheduled to stand trial Oct. 29.
According to the criminal complaint, police responded to a home in the 100 block of Alpine Drive for a report of a child who fell down the steps and was not breathing. The home belongs to David. He was allowing Escalante’s mother and the child to stay at the home, despite there being a no-contact order in place between the woman and James.
David said he was home alone with Escalante when he left him to get a roll of toilet paper. When he returned, he found Escalante at the bottom of the steps, David claimed.
When police first talked to James, he said his father was the one with Escalante at the time of the incident.
But Escalante’s mother told police it was James who called her to say the child wasn’t breathing. She went to the home, where she found her son “limp” and unresponsive. She also said James wanted her to say it was David who was with the boy when the injuries happened. The mother called 911.
An officer asked the mother “if she could recall any other words he was saying and she explained James kept telling her, “I’m sorry” and that it was “an accident,”,” the complaint states.
Prosecutors confirmed previously they do not believe David was involved in the incident that killed Escalante.
After Escalante’s death, authorities say the VanderLeests fled to a relative’s cabin in Florence County, where a SWAT team helped take them into custody after a standoff.
James admitted he was with the boy and then told police the same story as his father — that Escalante had fallen down the stairs. He repeatedly denied causing child’s injuries.
When pressed, James told police they were not going to get a “fake confession,” the complaint states.
David told police James told him the same version of events about the stair fall.
Escalante was flown to Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee, where he was pronounced dead two days after his injuries occurred.
According to the autopsy:
There were blunt force injuries to the head-multiple scalp and facial contusions; deep scalp and subgaleal hemorrhages; subdural hematoma; cerebral edema; scattered contusion of the extremities; three contusions of the trunk; two patterned contusions of the upper extremities.
The injuries were not consistent with a fall down the stairs, a doctor told police.
At previous court hearings, both VanderLeests disputed the accounts offered by police and prosecutors.
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