Pregnant Virginia mom and lover sexually abused 2-year-old boy with object before killing him with blow to head
CHRISTIANSBURG, VIRGINIA: A pregnant mother and her boyfriend allegedly sexually abused a toddler using an object before they killed him with a fatal blow to the head. A trial date has been set for the mother, Kayla Nicole Thomas, 26, from Virginia, post the death of her two-year-old son, Steve Meek ll who had passed away in January 2019. Thomas is due to appear in court between January 20 and 22 in 2021 post the death of her son who died in January 2019.
Thomas' boyfriend McKenzie Hellman, 26, will be due to trial on October 5. Thomas' son, Meek, died after he suffered from a head trauma last year. Hellman had reportedly called the police and said that the child was unresponsive after he fell over.
Investigators found that the child had died of blunt force trauma which was inconsistent with a fall, ABC News reports. Forensic nurses then made "a sickening discovery" and revealed that they had found "evidence that the child was also being sexually abused at home." During the time this was taking place, Thomas had also been pregnant with another child. Thomas has been charged with child abuse and neglect, transmitting child porn, producing child porn, forcible sodomy and object sexual penetration. While Hellman has been charged with 13 charges that vary from child sex crimes, child porn, child abuse, and felony murder.
It also reported that Hellman had gone through a mental evaluation last year. His attorneys revealed that he had been involuntarily committed to mental health facilities many times.
According to WHSV, the first officer to arrive at the scene was Timothy Lusk with the Christianburg Police Department. In his pre-testimony, Lusk told the court that there had been two children playing inside a bedroom. The other child was Hellman's biological son, 2. Hellman had said that there was loud thump after which he found Meek on the ground.
Lusk shared that Meek had been partially dressed and had both bruising on both his eyes. He also had no heart rate when Lusk had started CPR until EMT's took over.
We had earlier reported that the second child in the home had also suffered from similar physical and sexual abuse at the hands of Hellman and Thomas. The identity of the child had been withheld. Christianburg Police Chief Mark Sisson had spoken about the 'horrific' case on January 18 last year.
He said it began with Hellman's 911 call from their home at the 400 block of Zinc Lane at around 9:15 pm on January 11 saying the toddler had fallen and was unresponsive. Sisson said Christiansburg Officer Aaron Lusk found Hellman sitting in the living room floor next to Steven, and that Lusk and town rescue squad members performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the boy for around 25 minutes until a pulse returned. He was then taken to a hospital, where he passed away.
He tearfully paid a tribute to the child and said, "Children in this community are cherished. They are individuals without voices. It is our job to be their voice."