Who was Danilo Coles? Texas boy, 12, dies from 'excessive whippings' by dad and stepmom
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Derrick Coles, 32, and Kapri Cheatom, 27, a San Antonio-based couple were arrested over the weekend after their 12-year-old son died from “excessive whippings” for being “disrespectful”. The pair was taken into custody overnight and were charged with a first-degree felony causing injury to a child resulting in a serious bodily injury. The suspects maintain that the child fell while taking a shower and cut himself.
San Antonio Police Department responded to a 911 call from Derrick Coles about the child that stopped breathing at home in the 7600 block of Wurzbach Road. The first responders tried to resuscitate the child before they took Danilo to the University Hospital, where the medical staff located “several suspicious injuries on the victim” and no brain activity. He died later that night at the hospital.
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During questioning, Derrick admitted he hit Danilo and made him hold 50-pound boxes for hours. The arrest affidavit read that after the shower Derrick demanded that the boy do pushups, but the victim was unable to do it and ended up passing out.
Danilo had recently moved in with his father and Cheatom after being raised in Chicago by his mother where he was abused according to Derrick. Derrick told the detectives that Danilo moved in with them, and immediately started acting “disrespectful” and “caused problems” for him and Cheatom. As of now, both the suspects are behind bars on bond amounts of $150,000 each.
In another instance of child abuse, a five-year-old boy died from blunt force trauma to his head. The court documents reveal the harrowing details of the torture that Crystal Lake boy Andrew "AJ" Freund was subjected to by his parents. The incident prompted intense scrutiny of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services who were in extensive contact with the family. Court documents allege that Andrew’s parents killed him by beating him and subjecting him to long, cold showers; an autopsy determined that the child died from blunt force trauma to his head, which had been struck multiple times.
Andrew's body was recovered in the rural Hennen Conservation Area of Woodstock, about seven miles northwest of the boy’s home. In a press conference, the police and the FBI confirmed the five-year-old boy was "buried in a shallow grave wrapped in plastic." His parents had reported him missing last week.
Andrew's parents, Andrew Freund Sr and JoAnn Cunningham, were both charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder. Freund and Cunningham also faces charges for aggravated battery, aggravated domestic battery, and failure to report a missing child or child death.