A father in Minnesota will spend the next decade behind bars after he severely injured his 3-month-old twin sons, likely causing them to have developmental issues.
After Dylan Raymond Strain pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree assault with great bodily harm, he was sentenced to serve just under 16 years in prison on Monday, June 22.
The investigation in Strain, 20, began in January 2025 when the twin boys were brought to a hospital with signs of abuse. A probable cause affidavit obtained by Law & Crime stated that one of the boys was suffering from seizures and had “very low oxygen saturation levels.”
The boy had bleeding on the brain, bruises that covered his body and rib fractures that were in various stages of healing. He had a total of 46 fractures, and officers wrote in the affidavit that the injuries “caused significant risk of death.”
Meanwhile, the other boy suffered a healing laceration under his tongue, and he also had a total of 14 fractures that included rib and clavicle injuries. Additionally, the boy had hemorrhaging under his eyes that could potentially result in vision loss.
Authorities concluded that both of the babies’ injuries were the result of child abuse. After detectives learned that the boys lived with their mother, grandmother and two other children at a home in St. Paul, their grandmother said Strain was behind the abuse.
“My grandbabies are in the hospital because some man don’t know how to control himself,” she said, per the affidavit. “That man is Dylan Strain.”
The grandmother also told officers that she heard “hysterical crying” coming from the twins’ room, and she found one of the boys had a cut on his lip. She added that the same thing happened just a few days later.
Officers later spoke to Strain, who claimed he jammed the bottle “too hard into the baby’s mouth.”
The grandmother also told officers that she saw Strain “screaming” at both boys in the twins’ room on a different occasion, and she even found a punched-out hole in the room’s wall.
Additionally, the grandmother recalled another occasion when she saw Strain holding a baby wipe to the boy’s lip with a pile of bloody baby wipes on the nearby floor.
Strain reportedly told the grandmother that he was a “bad dad” and that he “can’t handle this.”
While speaking to officers, Strain admitted it was “likely” that he caused the twins’ injuries. “I was a bit lackluster with my patience with the kids,” he said. “Baby crying gets me so worked up.”
Strain also admitted that he squeezed the twins too tight and he “socked the s*** out of the wall.”
Officers later spoke to the kids’ mother, who said that the boys were always in Strain’s care when they suffered injuries.
“She described that Strain would hold the babies on his lap,” authorities wrote in the affidavit. “He would yell and ‘bounce’ the babies on his lap ‘very fast.’ She agreed that the babies’ arms and legs would flail around during these incidents. She immediately grabbed the babies from him when she would see that.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
