Police cited a former wife’s recording alongside medical evidence while seeking murder charges against Dean Peruta in his newborn son’s death.
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. — Months into an investigation of a 2-week-old boy’s death, detectives received a recording from the accused father’s former wife in which he allegedly described using fear and physical punishment to control children, according to an arrest warrant cited by Connecticut news organizations.
The recording became one piece of a much larger probable-cause case against Dean R. Peruta, 40, who is charged with murder, murder of a victim under 16 and risk of injury to a child. Police did not base the case solely on his statements about discipline. The warrant also describes medical findings that doctors said did not match his explanation that the newborn fell roughly 3 feet from a couch while Peruta was asleep. An autopsy later concluded that the baby died from blunt-force injury to the head and classified the death as a homicide. Peruta has not been convicted of causing the child’s death.
According to reports describing the recording, Peruta spoke about physically punishing children so they would fear a parent and about mentally or physically scaring a child as a means of establishing control. Police also wrote that he acknowledged previously striking his daughter in the back of the head. Investigators said he compared his disciplinary methods to beating a dog in an effort to house train it. Because the statements appear in an arrest warrant, they represent evidence police relied on in seeking charges; whether and how they may be used in later court proceedings will be determined through the criminal process.
The recording drew attention because investigators had already been trying to determine how an apparently routine overnight feeding ended with catastrophic injuries. Peruta told detectives he brought his newborn son downstairs around 3 a.m. in December 2025 and sat with him on a couch. He said he fell asleep while holding the baby and awoke when he heard the infant crying on the floor near his feet. Peruta said he picked the baby up and believed the child had recovered quickly enough that he did not immediately recognize the situation as an emergency.
Police say his actions after the reported fall also became relevant. Peruta told investigators that he initially concealed what had happened from the baby’s mother because he was afraid to tell her. According to the warrant, she later noticed bruising and confronted him, after which he acknowledged that the child had fallen. Reports on the warrant say Peruta initially argued against calling 911. The public record does not establish precisely how much time elapsed between each event, but emergency personnel were ultimately called Dec. 21 and encountered an unresponsive newborn who required immediate hospital treatment.
The baby was taken to Windham Hospital and then transferred by medical helicopter to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Doctors found injuries far more severe than investigators expected from the reported couch fall. The warrant describes swelling near the left ear, internal bleeding in the brain, a fracture on the left side of the skull and a stroke. A physician told investigators that the findings indicated inflicted, nonaccidental trauma. Additional information given to authorities included retinal hemorrhages and a lack of brain-stem reflexes as the child’s condition deteriorated.
Medical opinions became the principal challenge to Peruta’s explanation. A trauma doctor told investigators the injuries were not consistent with a fall of about 3 feet and would have required a significantly greater height or another source of force, according to reports on the warrant. Medical staff described the findings as consistent with abusive head trauma and significant blunt-force injury. Some reports also said doctors believed the injuries could reflect more than one impact. Those assessments did not identify an eyewitness to the alleged act, but they gave detectives reason to question whether an accidental fall could explain the damage.
Police interviewed Peruta again as the medical investigation developed. He continued to describe falling asleep with the infant, saying he did not know exactly how the child moved from his arms to the floor. Peruta also acknowledged consuming alcohol that night, the warrant says. He described the amount as normal for him and denied having an alcohol problem. Investigators included the statement among the circumstances surrounding the overnight incident. Public reports have not said that prosecutors are alleging intoxication, by itself, as the cause of the death.
The infant remained critically ill for several days. Doctors eventually determined that he had lost brain function, and life-sustaining treatment was withdrawn. He was pronounced dead Dec. 27, 2025. The chief medical examiner’s office later attributed the death to blunt-force head injury and ruled it a homicide. That ruling strengthened the investigative basis for treating the case as a suspected criminal death, but police continued gathering evidence for months rather than immediately arresting Peruta on a homicide charge.
While that investigation remained open, Peruta was arrested in another case in May. Willimantic police said officers were called after a third party reported that a woman known to Peruta was in danger inside a residence. Police said they could hear her yelling for help as officers approached and entered under emergency circumstances. Authorities accused Peruta of unlawfully entering the home and assaulting the woman, including by strangulation. Charges in that case included attempted murder, home invasion, assault, violation of a restraining order, strangulation, unlawful restraint, reckless endangerment and threatening.
The May allegations did not establish responsibility for the infant’s death, and the two cases carry separate charges and require separate proof. But Peruta’s detention in the later case meant that he was already in custody when detectives completed their work on the newborn investigation. Reports on state records also said he was subsequently accused of violating a protective order. Those proceedings created an unusual legal backdrop when the infant-death warrant was finally approved more than eight months after the child died.
Police obtained the murder warrant Sept. 10 and served it Sept. 15 while Peruta was at Danielson Superior Court. A judge set a $2 million bond on the charges involving the infant. The timing marked the first point at which investigators publicly accused Peruta of criminal responsibility for the death. Until then, the case had moved through medical reviews, police interviews, records and evidence collected from people connected to Peruta, including the recording supplied by his former wife.
The statements on that recording may be among the most striking allegations in the warrant, but the core factual dispute remains narrower: Peruta described an accidental couch fall, while medical professionals told investigators the baby’s injuries required substantially more force. How prosecutors connect those facts, what evidence a judge permits at later stages and whether the defense contests the medical conclusions are matters for court. An arrest warrant establishes probable cause to charge someone; it does not determine guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Peruta is being held while his criminal cases proceed. Reports based on court records listed Nov. 17, 2026, as his next scheduled appearance in Danielson Superior Court in connection with the murder and separate home-invasion matter. No verdict has been reached in the infant-death case, and the state’s allegations remain unproven unless established through the judicial process.
Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.