A jury trial is underway for a Fort Dodge man charged with 39 counts of child abuse against his own baby.

Austin Prewitt, 25, was charged in September 2025 with dozens of counts of both felony and misdemeanor child endangerment causing bodily injury, assault causing injury, child endangerment causing injury, and neglect or abandonment of a dependent person.

During opening statements in Webster County District Court Thursday, Webster County Assistant County Attorney Bailey Cavanaugh said the life of Prewitt’s 10-month-old son was “physically tumultuous.”

According to Cavanaugh, in September 2025, Austin Prewitt and his wife, Rebekah Prewitt, 24, were first time parents to a 10-month-old son, having recently moved to Fort Dodge from Tennessee, and were in the process of making home renovations, all of which the Prewitts said had caused stress. Following an anonymous call to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, a social worker went to the Prewitt’s home and found “bruises of varying colors and shapes on the bottom” of the baby. Austin Prewitt later admitted to striking the child multiple times with a two-foot-long paint stirrer stick as a means of “correction.”

Austin Prewitt told investigators that as early as when the child was two-months-old, as a means of correction, he would “flick the inside of the child’s thigh,” Cavanaugh said. As the child got older, he began striking the child on the bottom with the paint stick, a flyswatter, wooden kitchen utensils, and his hand.

“He admitted to hitting the child — one, two, three — to this child’s bare bottom several times each day with a 2-foot-long paint stick,” Cavanaugh told the jury. “Break the will without breaking the child’s spirit, that’s how the defendant described how he would treat that baby.”

According to Cavanaugh, Rebekah Prewitt told investigators on Sept. 10, 2025, following a visit from a social worker that her husband was the one who had struck the child as a way to correct him.

A state social worker, Teresa Villegas, testified that she saw a paint bucket at the home with the wooden paint sticks taped together. The social worker worked with Rebecca Prewitt to create a safety plan as well as to find a safe place to go.

“She was in a position of should she obey her husband or help her child,” said Cavanaugh.

Rebekah Prewitt was also charged with 21 counts of child endangerment resulting in bodily injury and neglect or abandonment of a dependent person. Her charges were dismissed earlier this week.

After the 2025 visit from the social worker, both parents were arrested and charged with multiple counts of child abuse.

During testimony Tuesday, Villegas stated that Austin Prewitt told her that the physical abuse was a form of “corrections based on his beliefs.”

Austin Prewitt also told social workers and investigators that he had a “new protocol” for the child where they would require him to sit in one place for “20 to 30 minutes at a time for correction.”

Austin Prewitt’s defense attorney, Katherine Flickinger, told the jury that the state was not providing “the full picture,” and noted that the Prewitts had recently moved from Tennessee, attended church locally, and were struggling as first time parents. It was noted that they believed they were parenting their son as they had been parented.

The trial is anticipated to continue into next week in Webster County District Court. Austin Prewitt is currently free on a $10,000 cash bond.