Texas mom and girlfriend spanked boy with belt for lying, kicked him in the stomach until he died
FORT WORTH, TEXAS: The mother of a 4-year-old boy and her girlfriend has been arrested and charged with capital murder in the death of the boy, the Fort Worth Police revealed on Friday, July 31. The authorities revealed that back in March, officers had responded to a 'medical call' where 4-year-old Stetson Blackburn was unresponsive and not breathing at 3313 Bonaventure Boulevard. S.
Authorities arrested the women on suspicion of capital murder of a person under 10. Stetson's mother, Shannon Gray, 23, was arrested by Tennessee authorities while Shannon's girlfriend, Reyna Sanchez, 24 was arrested by Fort Worth Police, Star-Telegram reports. The manner of death and cause of death was listed by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office which had come to light around three weeks ago. It was reported that the child had died due to blunt force trauma.
He had suffered from a cardiac arrest, acute respiratory failure, a subdural hematoma, as well as a traumatic brain injury, a physician had revealed. Stetson had been rushed to the Cook Children's Medical Center and was pronounced dead two days later after he was declared brain dead. Sgt Rachel DeHoyos, with FWPD’s Crimes Against Children Unit said, "For all of us, we want to be the voice for Stetson because there is no one left to be his voice. And so to be his voice and see justice served and an arrest made is very satisfying."
The night before the child had stopped breathing, Gray had reportedly given her son an 'ass-whooping' as he was lying. Detective Adam Perry from the Fort Worth police Crimes Against Children Unit wrote, "Shannon said she overdid it" in an affidavit. Gray had reportedly revealed that she had spanked Stetson using a belt around 35-40 times and had also hit him in the head with a belt around 20 times the day before he was rushed to the Cook Children's.
Later on, Gray had felt bad and had apologized to the child after which she put him in a cold shower. Gray also told the police that Sanchez had made the child raise his hands over his head while he was in the shower and had proceeded to kick him in the stomach around two or three times as he was too slow in drying himself off. Sanchez had also said that she would frequently hit Stetson with a shoe or whatever object she found close by, the affidavit states. She had shared that on March 19, when Gray was working, she put Stetson and his 3-year-old brother down for a nap.
Around two minutes later, the child had started to gasp for air. Sanchez said that Stetson had vomit, food, and blood coming out from his mouth and nose. She put him into a cold shower after which Stetson became unresponsive. Sanchez reportedly then started to perform CPR on the boy but to no avail after which she called up Gray and told her to come home. When Gray arrived, she called 911 for help.
The police have revealed that several of Stetson's organs were donated.