http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/southdallas/stories/DN-momarrest_20met.ART0.North.Edition1.3e98c9b.html
Police arrest Dallas man in fatal beating of 3-year-old boy
Witness reports seeing child thrown against wall, dunked in toilet
08:06 AM CDT on Saturday, October 14, 2006
By LAUREN D'AVOLIO / The Dallas Morning News
The brutality will haunt Latricia Love.
She said she saw a Dallas man grab his girlfriend's 3-year-old son around the neck, pick him up and force his face into a bowl of oatmeal – apparently punishment for soiling himself. Later, she said, she saw the man throw the boy into a living room wall and thrust his face into the toilet.
Hours later, the boy was dead.
Alonzo Turner, 19, was arrested and charged with capital murder Friday evening in connection with the beating death of the boy, police said. Causing the death of a child younger than 6 is considered capital murder and is punishable by life in prison or a death sentence.
"I hate him myself," Ms. Love said.
The child – whose name was not immediately released – lived in an apartment in the 4800 block of Sunnyvale Street in east Oak Cliff.
In addition to the capital murder charge, Mr. Turner faces one count of misdemeanor assault, said Dallas police Senior Cpl. Donna Hernandez. He was in custody Friday evening. Bail information was not available.
Mr. Turner had been caring for the boy while his mother was away from the apartment, Cpl. Hernandez said.
'She was packing up'
"What ... [investigators have] been able to determine is that Mr. Turner was basically the caretaker of the child at the time the child received the injuries that apparently caused the child's death," she said, adding that Mr. Turner "is more or less the mother's boyfriend."
A 911 call was placed about 3 p.m. Friday, she said.
Keitha Davis, whose mother lives in the complex, said the boy and his mother lived with Mr. Turner. They moved into the complex about two weeks ago, but few residents knew them.
Earlier Friday, Ms. Davis said she saw the boy's mother stuffing a car with her belongings. She said the woman appeared to have a swollen lip and bruised face.
"She told the man she wanted her child because she was packing up," Ms. Davis said. "He pulled the baby back inside and slammed the door.
"He was lookin' like he was real, real, real angry."
Neighbors said Mr. Turner threatened to kill them with a gun when they confronted him about the incident.
Ms. Love said her friend and Mr. Turner had been dating intermittently for eight months . Ms. Love – a former roommate of the mother – said she remembers one time her friend left Mr. Turner to live with her father. Mr. Turner found the woman, Ms. Love said, so her friend agreed to reconcile and moved into this apartment with him about two weeks ago.
Ms. Love said that when she arrived Friday, the boy had a Band-Aid on his right temple, but it did not hide a bruise underneath it.
"When we were walking out the door, she tried to take the boy and he told her not to touch him – asked if she wanted a whooping, too," Ms. Love said.Ms. Love said when they returned about 30 minutes later from grocery shopping, the 3-year-old appeared disoriented and uneasy. He complained of exhaustion, she said, so he took a nap. Ms. Love got a call from his mother about 3:30 p.m. saying he was dead.
"He was so innocent. He didn't deserve no whooping," Ms. Love said. "He didn't do nothing to nobody."
Pair seemed 'normal'
Neighbors said they thought it was strange that the 3-year-old was never allowed out to play with other children at the complex.
Kenneth Grayson, who owns Grayson Security and works at the complex, said Mr. Turner and his girlfriend "seemed like they were normal."
The two-bedroom apartment where the boy died was clean and sparsely furnished. A Sponge Bob Squarepants table in the living room was overturned and missing a leg. A matching chair was strewn three feet away.
The boy liked the comic book character Spider-Man. The superhero's likeness was emblazoned on a blanket that covered his Venetian blinds, an umbrella, a bag and even a folding chair.
A Polaroid picture of Mr. Turner was hanging in the room. A Bible was on top of a chipped wooden nightstand next to the boy's bed.
E-mail ldavolio@dallasnews.com
people are sick
thank god, the mother was charged,hopefully she will be beaten to death in jail too.