Police say suspect admitted hitting girl

Defendant allegedly beat, shook 3-year-old for not helping with laundry

On a Saturday when he was baby-sitting his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter, Jason Dillon was tired and hung over.

He drank about 16 beers the night before, he told police, and had been out until 6 a.m.

It wasn’t clear from testimony in court Wednesday exactly what caused him to turn violent.

But as the day went on, Dillon admitted to police, he subjected the girl to repeated physical attacks – at one point picking her up and shaking her when she refused to help him pick up laundry, Lawrence Police Detective John Hanson testified.

Hanson testified that Dillon also admitted striking the girl in the back of her head more than a dozen times after she told him she didn’t want him to be her daddy anymore.

The preliminary hearing Wednesday in District Court was the first public release of details of the events that led to 3-year-old Sydni Perkins’ death June 19. At the end of the hearing, Judge Michael Malone ordered the 22-year-old Dillon to stand trial Nov. 14 for first-degree murder, and Dillon entered a not-guilty plea.

Dillon is charged with killing the girl during the commission of a dangerous felony – in this case, child abuse.

The first witness at the hearing was Sydni’s mother, 22-year-old Rachel Perkins of Lawrence, who fought back tears as she described the events leading to the death.

Perkins said that when she moved to Lawrence in March from Colby, she began living with Dillon in a townhome at 1105 George Court. She said Sydni considered Dillon to be her dad, and that she had never seen Dillon be violent – except for a couple times when he spanked the girl.

When that happened, Perkins said, she told him she didn’t approve of it.

Perkins said she was working at Pearson Government Solutions from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 18, and that Dillon came home at about 6 a.m. after being at a party in Kansas City. She said she left the two at the townhome, called home several times to check in with Dillon and never got an indication that something was wrong.

Sydni was excited that day, Perkins said, “because we were going to go swimming.”

But when Perkins arrived home shortly after 5 p.m., she said, Sydni was lying in bed unresponsive. Dillon told her, “We have a problem,” and told her Sydni had fallen and hit her head in the bathroom.

Perkins said that when she was unable to wake Sydni, they took her to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, and she was later flown to a hospital in Kansas City, where she died the next day.

Perkins said Dillon never changed his story. She said she didn’t know he was suspected of a crime until he was arrested several days later.

Hanson testified that he met Dillon at the hospital late Saturday and asked him to come back to Lawrence for an interview so it could be recorded on video and audio.

“We knew the injuries were not consistent with the story he had given,” Hanson said.

Hanson said detectives appealed to Dillon by telling him the girl was still under medical care and that they needed to know exactly what happened to her.

Hanson said Dillon admitted that about 9:30 a.m., he struck Sydni with the back of his hand and knocked her to the ground, causing her to fall backward and strike her head. He said Dillon also admitted shaking the girl later when she didn’t want to help pick up laundry.

Hanson said Dillon told him Sydni then took a nap in the late morning, woke up at about 1 p.m. and told him she didn’t love him anymore and “didn’t want him to be her daddy.”

At first, Hanson said, Dillon admitted striking the girl with his lower palm in the back of her head three times. In a second interview before his arrest, Hanson said, Dillon admitted he really had struck her 13 or 14 times.

The coroner, Erik Mitchell, testified Sydni died of blunt force to her head, possibly compounded by shaking.

Dillon, a former foster child and Lawrence High School track standout, sat with his head bowed throughout the hearing. He remains in the Douglas County Jail.

Perkins declined comment after the hearing.