- ‘I went too far,’ the mother says
The 14-year-old boy who was beaten to death Jan. 30 in his mother’s Beacon Hill home had more than 1,000 separate injuries, according to charging documents filed in King County Superior Court on Tuesday.
Denaya J. Young, 29, was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder in connection with her son’s killing. The boy was injured so much that the King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that he had suffered sudden inflammatory response syndrome, in which blood is sent to so many parts of the body to heal them that there is not enough to sustain the heart.
The Medical Examiner’s Office documented at least 1,172 marks on Jemiere Da’metrius James Robinson’s body, including 74 on his face and head, the majority of which apparently were inflicted during a single event.
Young allegedly beat Robinson for three hours until he stopped breathing, according to the charging documents.
Robinson had lived with his mother since August. He originally had come to visit Young, but she did not return him to his legal guardian, her sister, charges say.
The prosecutor wrote that Robinson “cried for help” while his stepfather, 5-month-old brother, and 4- and 6-year-old sisters were in the house. According to a probable cause affidavit, Young told police she began beating Robinson because he didn’t do his chores and that she “went too far.”
Seattle police officers and Fire Department medics responded to the home on Jan. 30 after Young called 911 and told the dispatcher she had been spanking Robinson with an extension cord when he became unresponsive, charges say. Medics took him to Harborview Medical Center, where he died shortly after arriving, according to the affidavit.
Young waited five minutes to call 911 after Robinson collapsed and stopped moving, according to the charging documents.
When an officer approached Young, she said “this was me,” and later said “I let my anger get the best of me with the extension cord,” according to the affidavit. After being read her Miranda rights, she told officers she “lost count” of how many times she had hit the boy with the cord.
“I should have listened because he kept telling me ‘I’m dizzy, I’m dizzy,’ and I kept telling him, ‘Stand up,’” Young told an officer, according to court documents, adding that he fell multiple times and asked her to stop.
She told police she began abusing the boy in November, according to the affidavit. The Medical Examiner’s Office found 10 to 20 injuries that appeared to be from before the Jan. 30 attack.
The boy’s stepfather reportedly told an officer that he didn’t “discipline” Robinson “because that’s not my place.”
According to court documents, the stepfather saw Young chase the boy up and down their three-story town home, repeatedly hitting him. He told officers he didn’t intervene because “my best bet is to mind my own business,” the affidavit said.
He said he later found Young panicking and Robinson was not breathing, which is when they called 911.
Young remains held in the King County Jail on $3 million bail. Her next court date is an arraignment at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 13.
@The Seattle Times, excluding the headline