
A 6-year-old child is in critical condition on life support after prosecutors say the child was seriously beaten by its mother’s boyfriend in Round Lake Beach.
Round Lake Beach Deputy Police Chief Wayne Wilde said his department was contacted by medical staff at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville around 4 p.m. Monday.
A 6-year-old child had been brought to the emergency room with significant head trauma.
Wilde said officers went to the hospital and spoke with medical staff and the mother of the child.
The mother, who police have not publicly identified, said she rushed the child to Condell in an Uber after finding the child unresponsive with significant injuries on the floor of her home in the 1300 block of Melrose Avenue in Round Lake Beach.
The Round Lake Beach Police Department requested assistance from the Lake County Children’s Advocacy Center with investigating the case.
Police detectives and investigators from the advocacy center learned the child was in the home with the boyfriend of the mother just prior to being injured.
Wilde said the investigation showed the child’s injuries were the result of an “intentional act by the mother’s boyfriend.”
The boyfriend was identified as Tracy D. Thomas, 34, of Round Lake Beach. He turned himself in to police Thursday afternoon.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Melinda Lange said during a bond hearing Friday that Thomas admitted to striking the child’s head against a bed headboard and a wall.
Lange said that two other children were present in the home at the time of the incident.
Lange said during the bond hearing that the child has died; however, Wilde said the child remains on life support at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.
Thomas is facing one count of aggravated battery of a child under the age of 13, a Class X felony, and one count of aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office is expected to upgrade the charges against the man if the child dies, Wilde said.
When Lake County Judge Christopher Lombardo asked Thomas during the bond hearing if he had hired an attorney yet, Thomas began crying and said, “It’s just hard right now.”
Lombardo appointed the public defender’s office to represent the man.
Lange asked the judge to order Thomas held on a $1 million bond, while Assistant Public Defender Reed Nixon asked for a bond lower than that.
Lombardo ordered Thomas held on a $500,000 bond. He also ordered Thomas to have no contact with the mother and the other children.
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for March 17.