Complete strangers attended his vigil and were heartbroken by his fate. People want to know how can something like this happen?
So we are asking some hard questions and taking a look back at who failed Dominick.
Our ABC12 investigation revealed some alarming warning signs.
Inside this apartment, a little boy cried out for help, but no one came.
"That's gonna haunt me, haunt all of us, I guess. That we didn't make sure everything was OK," Dominick's grandmother Julie Baker said.
Neighbors heard Dominick's screams for days as he was hit, burned, kicked and punched again and again.
"A neighbor heard little Dominick say over and over mommy make him stop," said Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell.
But no one called.
Argentine Township Police Chief Dan Allen said a phone call was all that was needed. "It could have made the difference. It's something they're going to have to live with. We're all going to have to live with."
Dominick Calhoun was four years old. He loved dancing, his blankie and his mommy, who investigators say didn't protect him.
"In the end, the one he trusted most let him down - his mother," Pickell said.
Police said Dominick's mother, Corrine Baker, was high and worried about getting into trouble, so she turned her back while her boyfriend hit Dominick so many times his tiny body couldn't take it anymore.
"I couldn't find a spot. There was no - every spot on his body was badly beaten," neurosurgeon Dr. Jawad Shah said.
Dominick didn't have to die.
"We had a mother here on drugs and in a very bad situation. There were a lot of warning signs that should have cried out," Prosecutor David Leyton said.
But no one saved him.
It started when Dominick wet his pants.
"He wet on the couch and wet on (his mother's boyfriend) Brandon himself," Allen said.
That's what Brandon Hayes told police made him so mad that he started beating the 55-pound little boy.
It began Thursday, April 8.
"What we have here is a 4-year-old boy who was beaten to death by a 24-year-old man. Who does that?" Leyton said.
Brandon told police he was mad about the mess on the sofa and the fact that he was broke and was supporting Corrine and her two little boys without child support from either of their fathers.
Dominick's dad was still involved in his life, that's why, investigators believe, Brandon took out his rage on the four year old.
Pickell said this during a press conference. "He was tired of raising little Dominick. He was nothing more than a little crack head and that he deserved to die."
"She took in a drug addict and a guy that was selling drugs, and her apartment became a drug house," said Pickell.
"Ultimately that's what led to Dominick's death. You had a mother hooked on drugs who got hooked up with the wrong guy, and the little boy is the one who suffers," said Leyton.
Brandon Hayes is accused of torturing little Dominick Thursday, Friday Saturday and Sunday.
"Hard to imagine anyone doing this, let alone someone who is supposed to take care of this kid," Shah commented.
Corrine Baker is accused of doing nothing until it was too late.
"When she had the opportunity to get him out of danger and harm's way, she failed," Leyton said during a press conference.
Investigators learned Dominick's mom left the apartment two times. But she was on probation and had violated it by moving out of Livingston County, so she alerted no one.
She went to a doctor's appointment with her parents the morning of Friday, April 9.
"We were talking with her. She was all happy and smiley, talking to Brandon on the phone," grandfather Martin Baker said.
"I'll say this till the day I die: All she had to do was say one word. Just one," Julie Baker said.
Later that day, Corrine, Brandon, Dominick and his brother would go to the dollar store with Brandon's father, who noticed severe burns on Dominick's hands and bruises on his head.
"He says we've gotta get this little guy to the emergency room," Pickell said.
Investigators say he then called Corrine's mom, who called Corrine repeatedly on Saturday, April 10, urging her to get Dominick to the doctor. Although he is vomiting and bleeding, she doesn't.
"Maybe someday she can admit she didn't do everything humanly possible to save that little boy's life," Julie Baker said.
Police say the abuse continued, and neighbors heard it.
"It just tears your heart apart to think about what that little child went through. We're talking about a four year old, and a four year old can consciously ask for help. I just can't see why somebody wouldn't call. It puzzles me," Allen said.
Investigators believe Corrine tried to stop Brandon on Sunday by lying on top of her son as he was being kicked and punched.
"By the time she tried to help, it was too late. It was already too late," said Allen.
According to police, Corrine's sister and three others came over that day to buy marijuana and saw Dominick, battered and bruised, lying in his room. Corrine had bruises on her face and arm, and told them not to bother Dominick - he was sleeping.
Her sister would call Dominick's paternal grandfather, Rick Calhoun, who rushed over to help. "I knocked on the door. They answered and I got in there and seen what was going on, and got through them. Went into bedroom and seen my grandson laying here. I thought he was beat up, and honestly, at that point, thought he was resting. He was laying there with no clothes on. I thought he had taken a bath and was sleeping, but he wasn't. He was dying."
Dominick would never dance again. His favorite blankie was found, blood spattered.
Rick Calhoun did what police say his mother failed to - he contacted authorities.
All this time, police had been just three blocks away.
"We could have ran there on foot. That's how close it is," said Allen.
Calhoun said he did the only thing he could think to do at that point. He punched the man investigators say killed his grandson. "What are you supposed to do? I just wish I could have saved them."
Dominick was rushed to the hospital. That's when Dr. Shah, the neurosurgeon on call, got the emergency page
"I'm just a couple minutes away. I told them to get him up to the operating room immediately," he said, as he tried to maintain his composure.
The image of Dominick on the operating table still haunts Shah. Nothing could prepare him for what he was about to see. "It was quite clear to me that he brain was not going to survive this. When I saw, really, the full scale, the amount of violence inflicted on him, that's etched in my mind now. I couldn't find a spot. There was no, every spot on his body was badly beaten."
There was nothing doctors could do.
"That baby didn't have a chance. Now we all gotta pay, you know?" Calhoun said.
Shah thinks this incident should serve as a warning to everyone. "I think it's time people wake up a bit and say perhaps there's some change, something that needs to be done to prevent this from happening."
Police say Hayes was the one who beat Dominick to death, but he's not the only one responsible.
"All she had to do is say 'dad,' and point. And he'd have been in that apartment on that Friday morning. I can't help but think our grandson would still be alive. Our little angel would be here," Julie Baker said.
Corrine Baker has been charged with second degree murder for what she allegedly didn't do to save her son.
And a look back at the final hours, days and years of his short life reveals several people knew he was in danger, and someone, somehow could have made a life-saving difference.
"The neighbors weren't duty bound by law to call, but morally, it's the right thing to do. It's something they're going to have to live with," said Allen.
"I know they gave her way too many chances," Calhoun said.
"At some point, you've gotta draw the line and say is this the best place for children?" Allen said.
"All they kept coming back is they can't find any reason that warrants taking the kids out of her care. Well, they sure know now, don't they? They know now," Calhoun said.
