Teen Pleads Guilty To Stabbing Muskogee Toddler To Death With Scissors

NewsOn6.com & Lacie Lowry, News On 6

MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma -- A 19-year-old Tahlequah man charged with stabbing a Muskogee child to death last year pleaded guilty Tuesday.

Aaron Laconsello was charged with first degree murder in the November 9, 2010 stabbing death of Dakota Lane.  He was also charged with assaulting Dakota's pregnant mother.

Muskogee Police say Laconsello stabbed the pre-schooler with a pair of scissors 36 times.  He  entered a guilty plea minutes before his preliminary hearing was scheduled to start in a Muskogee County courtroom Tuesday morning.

12/21/2010 Related Story: Hearing Set For Man Charged In Child's Stabbing

"He deserved the death penalty," Larry Moore, Muskogee County DA, said. "If there was ever a case that I have ever been involved in or aware of that deserves the death penalty, it's this one. "

But Dakota's family requested life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death penalty for Laconsello. Dakota's grandfather says it was a unanimous family decision, so Laconsello could live with what he had done.

"We decided this was probably the best thing for us. We didn't want to deal with this parasite for fifteen or twenty years," Jack Bumgarner, Dakota's grandfather, said.

In court, Laconsello pleaded guilty to the murder and admitted he walked in the Lane house that night and stabbed the boy.

Dakota's family says the proceedings were tough.

"Especially when they started showing the judge pictures of Dakota. I mean, he looked so bad, you can just imagine. He had defensive wounds on his hands where he tried to shield himself," he said.

Dakota's mother, Stephanie Lane, read a statement to Laconsello about the hole he ripped in her heart.

"My last touch shouldn't have been performing CPR. He should still be here with us, sucking his thumb," she said.

Bumgarner keeps a picture close of little Dakota and prays for better days.

"It's actually been the worst seven months of my life. Hopefully things will get better, hopefully," he said.

Aaron Laconsello also pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and first degree burglary, for which he received twenty years in prison. When the judge asked him why he killed Dakota Lane, Laconsello reportedly said "I don't know."