Teen to be tried as adult for 5 year old's death

[nanabillie]

http://thedailynews.com/nsprpsonline.fr.htm
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Posted on Fri, Mar. 20, 2009
Teen to be tried as adult for 5-year-old's death



Florence Morning News
McClatchy-Tribune Regional News A 15-year-old boy accused of beating a 5-year-old boy to death in July will be tried as an adult, 12th Circuit Solicitor Ed Clements III said.
Shanquan Pickett died July 26, a day after someone struck him about the head and body with a round metal object, according to Florence County Sheriff's Office reports.
The results of an autopsy performed by a pathologist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston indicated he died of blunt force trauma, which led authorities to treat his death as a homicide.
The teen was arrested July 29 and is charged with homicide by child abuse charge.
Family Court Judge Jerry D. Vinson ruled he would be tried as an adult after a two-day waiver hearing during which he heard testimony from several witnesses and examined an assessment completed by the state Department of Juvenile Justice, Clements said.
The boy's attorney during the hearing was Carrington Wingard. He will have a bond hearing before Circuit Court Judge Ralph King Anderson at 9:30 a.m. Friday.
Investigators said the abuse that led to Shanquan's death happened at a Gilbert Drive mobile home in Florence where the 5-year-old had been staying just prior to his death, Florence County Sheriff's Lt. Brett Camp said shortly after the incident.
Investigators said Shanquan lived at the home with his mother, his brother, his mother's boyfriend and his son.
Florence County EMS personnel were summoned to the the home at Smith and Smith Mobile Home Park after receiving a call that a child was having trouble breathing, Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone said in a previous interview.
When help arrived, Shanquan was found at the home without an adult and could not breathe on his own at all, Boone said.
Shanquan later died after he was taken off a respirator at McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, Florence County Coroner M.G. "Bubba" Matthews said in an earlier report.
According to S.C. Code of Laws Section 16-3-85, a person is guilty of homicide by child abuse if he or she "causes the death of a child under the age of 11 while committing child abuse or neglect, and the death occurs under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life; or knowingly aids and abets another person to commit child abuse or neglect, and the child abuse or neglect results in the death of a child under the age of 11."
Clements, 12th Circuit Deputy Solicitor John Jepertinger and juvenile prosecutor David Richardson had been working to move the case from family court to a higher court soon after the teen's arrest, the solicitor said.

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[Roamer]

I'd like to know where the mother and her boyfriend were when the little boy died.

[Nut44x4]

Trial begins with opening statements in 15-year-old’s trial for 5-year-old boy’s death
September 21, 2009
http://www2.scnow.com/scp/news/local/pee_dee/article/jury_being_seated_for_15-year-olds_trial_in_5-year-old_boys_death/76453/


Jury: Teen guilty in beating death of 5-year-old child
Posted: Sep 23, 2009 6:34 PM EDT
Updated: Sep 23, 2009 6:44 PM EDT
FLORENCE, SC (WMBF) - A jury in Florence has found a 16-year-old guilty of homicide by child abuse after nearly beating a 5-year-old to death in July 2008.

The decision comes after investigators say 5-year-old Shanquan Pickett was believed to have been beaten with a belt by Jermaine Mayweathers and later died after suffering severe trauma to the head.

The State called its last two witnesses to the stand late Wednesday morning, including the doctor who treated Shanquan at the hospital.

Dr. Gerald Atwood testified that the boy had a pattern of bruises on his on his chest, abdomen, arms and legs. He said the bruising could have been as recent as five minutes or as old as 24 hours, but no older than that.

The doctor also testified to the brain damage the boy sustained, saying it was a traumatic brain injury.

"It requires a lot of force to deliver this much impact to the brain to cause this severe of an injury," said Atwood.

Atwood testified Pickett was as close to being brain dead when he first came to the hospital. He claims at one point the boy tried to breathe on his own without a respirator, but hours later was pronounced brain dead.

The judge presiding over the case sentenced Mayweathers to 30 years in prison.
http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=11186845
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Jermaine Mayweathers