Man Charged With Killing Son

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

November 14 2011 4:16 PM EST

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A Milwaukee man struggling with his sexual orientation has been charged with suffocating his toddler son.

Aaron Allen, 19 (pictured), was charged Friday with first-degree intentional homicide, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. On October 9, he was spending the night with the child's mother, Thelma Walton, 20; they had lived together for a time, but were not currently cohabiting. According to police, Allen said that sometime during the night, he suffocated the 22-month-old child, Aaron Allen Jr., with a sock.

The Journal Sentinel reports, "Asked why, the complaint says, Allen told police 'he was struggling with his sexuality and that he wanted things to be the way they were before his son was born.'"

On November 6, Allen called the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex's Crisis Response Unit and said he had taken an overdose of an antidepressant because he had killed his son. He was treated at the complex and then arrested.

Bond has been set at $300,000, and Allen is scheduled to appear in court November 21. If he is convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, he could be sentence to life in prison.