A Fort Dodge man has been convicted of 21 counts of assault, neglect, and child endangerment.

A Webster County jury deliberated for more than six hours Monday before finding Austin Prewitt, 25, guilty of one felony count of neglect of a dependent person; nine felony counts of child endangerment by unreasonable force, torture, or cruelty causing bodily injury; nine serious misdemeanor counts of assault causing bodily injury; one aggravated misdemeanor count of child endangerment by unreasonable force, torture, or cruelty; and one simple misdemeanor county of assault.

The jury acquitted Prewitt of six charges.

Twelve charges were dismissed by the court prior to the jury’s deliberation.

“The state is pleased with the outcome of this case,” said Webster County Assistant County Attorney Bailey Cavanaugh. “The jury worked diligently and thoroughly to come to a just verdict. I’d like to thank law enforcement, the Department of Health and Human Services and Investigator (Larry) Hedlund with the Webster County Attorney’s Office who worked on this investigation. This case is an example of the importance that if you see something, say something. No child deserves to live in this kind of environment.”

According to court documents, 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 2 months old, as a means of correction, he would flick the inside of the child’s thigh. 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.

According to court documents, Prewitt admitted to hitting his son’s bare bottom several times each day with a 2-foot-long paint stick, telling investigators he hoped to “break the will without breaking the child’s spirit.”

Prewitt will be sentenced in Webster County District Court at a later date.