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Man charged with felony child abuse for injuring infant son
10:25 AM EST on Wednesday, November 17, 2010
By Amanda Milkovits
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A young father is accused of severely injuring his four-month-old son
because the baby wouldn’t stop crying. Deanthony Allen, 18, listened silently in District Court, Providence,
early Tuesday afternoon as Pawtucket Detective Capt. John Seebeck read a statement that he said Allen had given to detectives
about how the baby ended up with fractured ribs, a brain bleed and a bruised face. Johnnel Marks is one of
Allen’s three children, two of whom he has with 21-year-old Stephanie Marks of Pawtucket. Allen was alone with Johnnel
on Saturday and Sunday, while Marks was working at her job as a nurse’s attendant at a house in Tiverton. The
baby “was bugging out,” Seebeck read from Allen’s statement to detectives. “I grabbed his face and
squeezed his chin. ... I squeezed him hard because I was frustrated because he wouldn’t stop crying.” The
baby was on a ventilator at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Seebeck told the court. The baby had been having seizures, and
his prognosis is “touch and go,” Hazel Marks, Johnnel’s grandmother, said later outside the courtroom. Allen
was charged with first-degree child abuse, a felony. Judge Elaine Bucci ordered him held on $25,000 with surety, which can
be satisfied with $2,500 cash bail to the state, or $1,250 to a bail bondsman. Allen was on probation on a marijuana possession
charge that had been filed. Allen, an unemployed high school dropout, lives in the Park Holm housing projects
in Newport with his great-grandmother. Allen called her when he found out he was being charged, but Channie Toney said she
couldn’t afford his bail. “I don’t believe he’d do this,” Toney said. “He
loved the children too good.” She said that Allen told her that Johnnel fell off the bed. Stephanie
Marks said that Allen also told her the same story after he called her at her job early Sunday morning and said the baby wasn’t
“acting right.” Marks said that Allen called her a few more times that morning, and she urged
him to take Johnnel to the hospital. By early Sunday afternoon, the baby was at the hospital and the doctors were calling
the police about the baby’s injuries. Marks said that Allen refused to talk to her or the rest of the
family at the hospital. Her brother, John, said he punched Allen and had to be restrained by hospital security. The
state Department of Children, Youth and Families had placed a hold on Johnnel and his 17-month-old sister while the assault
was being investigated, Marks said, preventing her from seeing her children. After the arraignment, Marks and her family were
returning to Hasbro to see her son. “Just hope for the best, and pray for him,” she said.
RI man gets life sentence in child's beating deathBy ERIC TUCKER – 1
day ago PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A man was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for fatally beating his
girlfriend's 3-year-old nephew because the child had spilled milk and yogurt on a rug. Gilbert Delestre apologized
for his role in the October 2004 death of Thomas "T.J." Wright, telling Providence Superior Court Judge Netti Vogel
he felt ashamed and prayed each day for forgiveness. But Vogel called him a coward and "sick and evil" person
whose only remorse was at having been caught. "He cared more about his rug than he did about the well-being of
this boy," Vogel said. "He cared more about spilled milk than he did about the safety of this boy." Prosecutors
said Delestre and his former girlfriend, Katherine Bunnell, took turns beating the boy after returning home from a night out
drinking and finding the mess. Both were convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. "He
killed him, he beat him, it was prolonged, and T.J. Wright — no question about it — suffered," prosecutor
Stacey Veroni said. Bunnell and Delestre were caring for the child and his two older brothers because their mother,
Karen Wright, was in prison. Wright told the judge Wednesday that she no longer had a reason to get out of bed. "Why'd
you beat him so bad like that?" she asked Delestre. "You just kept beating him — couldn't stop, couldn't
put him to bed." Delestre testified he struck T.J. on his head, causing him to fall down a staircase, but never
meant to kill him. The teenage baby sitter caring for the children that night said she heard several slaps after Delestre
went upstairs to confront T.J. and later saw the boy flying across the floor. The case raised questions about how foster
parents are screened and whether the children should have ever been placed with the couple. Delestre was
sentenced to life plus 10 years in prison, and will be eligible for parole in about 25 years. Bunnell received the same sentence.
Defend comments Please call for truth in sentencing. This man gets life plus
10 years and yet is eligible for parole in 25 years. Than hwere is the life sentence. Life plus 10 should mean
he stays in jail. This little boy will have no parole, heis permantly dead.
| Man charged
with child abuse after child, 1, found to have broken leg |  |
| Tuesday,
20 January 2009 | By RUSS OLIVO WOONSOCKET
— A Providence man was arraigned in Sixth District Court Tuesday on a charge of first-degree child abuse after his
girlfriend's year-old daughter was discovered with a broken leg recently, police said. Lawrence
Andrew Hinton, 21, was remanded to the ACI in lieu of bail, according to court records. He's due for another hearing on
Feb. 2 to determine whether he is in violation of his probation from an unrelated criminal conviction.
Police had been
looking for Hinton since the girl was injured on Jan. 7 and finally arrested him on Friday. His initial hearing in Sixth District
Court was further delayed by Martin Luther King Day.
On the day of the alleged offense, police said the victim's
mother left Hinton alone with her daughter in a Cumberland Village apartment while she left to keep a doctor's appointment.
When she returned about four hours later, the child was “crying uncontrollably” and her right thigh was visibly
swollen, police said in a report.
Hinton told the mother that he accidentally hurt the child when he tossed her into
the air and she fell off a bed. He said he had just been “playing around” with the baby the way he has in the
past.
The child was initially taken to Landmark Medical Center and later transferred to Hasbro Children's Hospital,
where doctors diagnosed the injury as a broken femur, or thigh, the thickest part of the leg bone. Police brought criminal
charges against Hinton after a doctor at Hasbro told Juvenile Detective Edward Doura that such an injury is inconsistent with
a small child falling off a bed.
Hinton has been arrested at least six times since 2006 on mostly minor charges that
include simple assault, domestic vandalism and misdemeanor larceny. But Superior Court records say he is also serving a suspended
sentence of five years, with probation, after pleading no contest to conspiracy to commit a felony in October. Hinton's
next appearance in court will be a hearing to determine whether the child abuse allegations are serious enough for a judge
to make him serve the suspended sentence, or at least a portion of it, in prison. | | Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 January 2009 ) |
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