St. Paul father inflicted dozens of injuries to twin babies, charges say

A man’s abuse of his infant twins in the family’s St. Paul home left the babies with dozens of fractures and other serious long-term injuries, according to charges.

Dylan Raymond Strain, 19, was charged Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court with two counts each of first-degree assault and malicious punishment of a child, in connection with the injuries inflicted on the twin boys, now nearly 5 months old.

A warrant has been issued for Strain’s arrest. Contact information for Strain was not immediately available.

According to the charges:

On Jan. 27, county child-protection staffers alerted police to concerns about the twins being abused.

Medical personnel at Children’s Minneapolis hospital saw one twin, identified in the criminal complaint as M.L.R., on Jan. 31 for seizures and “very low oxygen saturation levels,” the charges read.

An examination revealed bleeding on the brain and spine, along with nearly four dozen skeletal fractures that put him “at high risk for developmental delays,” the charges continued.

His twin, N.L.R., was examined and found to have a cut under his tongue, arm and abdominal bruising, healing rib, a broken collarbone, bleeding in the eyes “consistent with abusive trauma” and a total of 14 skeletal fractures, the complaint noted.

Like his brother, N.L.R. is at risk of suffering developmental delays and vision impairment.

A woman who lives in the home told investigators that her grandsons “are in the hospital because some man [doesn’t] know how to control himself. That man is Dylan Strain.”

She said she would hear hysterical crying from the twins' room and saw Strain screaming at the babies. She said he called himself a bad father and was having difficulty coping.

In an interview with police, Stain said he was responsible for the twins' injuries and would panic when both babies cried. He admitted squeezing the boys too tightly but denied ever shaking them.