TITUS GOOSEBERRY - 2 yo (1/2011) - Harvey (South New Orleans) LA

Sheriff: Grandmother beat 2-year-old to death



Sheriff: Grandmother beat 2-year-old to death

Posted on January 18, 2011 at 5:12 PM

HARVEY, LA – The grandmother of a two-year-old
child was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in his death
after a doctor determined the child had been badly battered.
Janella Lewis, 40, is accused of her grandson’s death.
According to Sheriff Newell Normand, officers responded to an
emergency call on Friday, Jan. 14 around 3:45 a.m. and found
two-year-old Titus Gooseberry in distress. The child was taken to
Ochsner on the Westbank where he was pronounced dead.
Detectives said that under initial questioning, Lewis said Gooseberry
and his three-year-old brother were put to bed and that she was
awakened around 2:30 a.m. by the child vomiting and having trouble
breathing.
However, Dr. Karen Ross of the Coroner’s Office said she determined
that Gooseberry had massive trauma to his liver, which had caused it to
rupture.
Normand said that under follow up questioning, Lewis eventually
admitted that sometimes when she watched Gooseberry, he would disobey
her and she would discipline him by pressing a heated metal fork against
his arm and sometimes using a wooden spoon as well. She said she would
also repeatedly strike the child with a belt, according to the sheriff’s
office

http://www.wwltv.com/news/crime/Sheriff-Grandmother-beat-2-year-old-to-death-114167744.html

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's office says a 40-year-old grandmother faces charges of second-degree murder and child cruelty charges in the death of her 2-year-old grandson.

According to investigators, officers initially responded to an early-morning call on Friday to a report of a child having trouble breathing and appearing to be unconscious at an apartment complex in Harvey. Police spokesman Col. John Fortunato says Titus Gooseberry, the toddler, was later pronounced dead at Ochsner Westbank.

Fortunato says an autopsy by the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office revealed that the child had suffered several injuries consistent with battered child syndrome. The report by Dr. Karen Ross determined that the fatal injury was massive trauma to the child's liver, causing it to rupture.

After the autopsy, detectives re-interviewed Janella Lewis, the grandmother (pictured above.) According to Fortunato, Lewis admitted to lying when first speaking with investigating officers. Police say that Lewis initially said that her daughter dropped off the toddler and his brother, and that the daughter told Lewis that the injuries were the results of a vehicle crash in Texas.

According to Fortunato, when confronted with inconsistencies in her story, Lewis then claimed that the toddler's injuries were an accident, caused by a fall down some stairs. Police say Lewis said that the boy's injury was caused when "he became entangled in her legs causing her to accidentally step on his back."

The police report says that detectives then confronted the grandmother with the cause of death found in the autopsy, and she then admitted to abusing the child: "Janella Lewis admitted that when she would watch Titus he would purposely disobey her and she would discipline him by using a heated metal fork and pressing it against his arm. Janella would also use a wooden spoon in the same fashion as the fork, as well as repeatedly striking the child with a belt."

Lewis remains in jail on a charge of second-degree murder.

Grandma Goes To Court In Child Abuse Death
Coroner: Woman Stomped On Boy, Lacerating Liver

HARVEY, La. -- Disturbing details were released Tuesday night after a case of child abuse on the Westbank, where a woman is charged with killing her grandson.

That grandmother was in court on Tuesday. Authorities were trying to decide if they had enough evidence to hold her in jail, and they did.

Janella Lewis, 40, was behind bars Tuesday night, charged with second-degree murder. Police said she was the primary caregiver for her 2-year-old grandson, Titus, and his 3-year-old brother.

When the 2-year-old was rushed to a hospital in mid-January vomiting blood, Lewis told authorities that she had disciplined the boy. Later, she admitted to burning the boy with a hot fork and beating him inside a Harvey apartment, police said.

According to published reports, Lewis stomped on the boy, lacerating his liver and leaving a footprint on the boy's back. The coroner said it was the worst lacerated liver she had ever seen.

Neighbors, who did not want to go on camera, said they could not believe the news.

"I haven't seen either one of the kids outside, and I didn't even know they had children," one woman said.

"A young child like that who can't even talk, of course the child was scared to cry," a man said.

The 3-year-old, who also lived in the apartment, is in protective custody.

Lewis' partner was booked on obstruction of justice charges. Police said she lied about the boy's injuries to cover up the crime.

http://www.wdsu.com/news/26961914/detail.html

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/05/grandmother_lover_indicted_in.html

A Jefferson Parish grand jury Thursday indicted a Harvey woman in the brutal death of her 2-year-old grandson and her live-in lover as an accessory to the murder.

Janella Lewis
Janella Lewis, 40, is charged with second-degree murder and cruelty to juveniles in connection with the injuries Titus Gooseberry suffered over a period of about a month before he died Jan. 14. The toddler died from lacerations to his liver allegedly caused by Lewis stomping on his back, but he also suffered a burn on his wrist, bruises on his legs and abrasions between his buttocks, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

Tonya Gooseberry
Lewis' lover, Tonya Gooseberry, 35, who also uses the name Tony Gooseberry, was indicted with accessory after the fact to second-degree murder and cruelty to juveniles. She and Gooseberry shared an apartment on Lorene Drive in Harvey. Deputies said Lewis was caring for Titus and his 3-year-old brother after their mother -- Lewis' daughter -- left her children there. The state took custody of the older child, who suffered no injuries, officials said.

While Lewis and Gooseberry face trial on unrelated charges of failing to return rental equipment, court records do not indicate whether they have attorneys appointed to represent them for the new charges.

Lewis denied brutalizing the child, telling detectives the injuries were caused by accidental falls or from discipline. She also claimed Titus was injured in a car wreck in Texas.

Lewis is in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna in lieu of $550,000 bond. Gooseberry, who initially was booked with obstruction of justice, was released from jail March 3 after posting bond, records show. With the indictment, she is expected to be re-arrested. A new bond in the amount of $150,000 was set Thursday, records show.

Separately, the grand jury indicted Jeffery Davis, 21, and Robbreion T. Green, 22, both of Marrero, with the second-degree murder of Rodney Ross on April 11, 2010.

Ross, 21, of Marrero, was shot several times. Deputies responding to reports of gunfire found his body in the 1000 block of Dimarco Drive.

Bonds for Davis and Green were set at $500,000, records show.

Second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence life in prison upon conviction.

Harvey grandmother pleads guilty to killing 2-year-old grandson
June 11, 2013 at 4:59 PM, updated June 11, 2013 at 5:36 PM

snipped...
Harvey grandmother has admitted she killed her 2-year-old grandson, tearing his liver and causing an array of bruises, abrasions and burns during beatings she administered in her apartment. Janella Lewis, 42, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and cruelty to a juvenile on Thursday, agreeing to a 40-year prison sentence for inflicting the fatal injuries to Titus Gooseberry on Jan. 14, 2011.

Titus' mother left the boy and his older brother with Lewis about a month before the toddler died, authorities have said. In the statements she gave to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, Lewis admitted to disciplining the child. But in explaining the impression of a shoe on the toddler's back, she said her grandson got tangled between her legs while she was taking out the garbage, leading her to stumble and step on him.

That injured Titus' liver and caused his death. "The coroner actually said it was the worst lacerated liver she had ever seen," detective Solomon Burke testified in a pre-trial hearing. "She said when she cut him open, a piece of his liver popped out."

Lewis had been scheduled to stand trial this week on charges of second-degree murder, which carries mandatory life in prison upon conviction, and cruelty to a juvenile. Instead, she offered to plead guilty and accept the maximum punishment law allowed for each charge: 40 years for manslaughter and 10 years for cruelty to a juvenile. Judge Donnie Rowan of the 24th Judicial District Court ran the sentences concurrently.

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Lewis' lover, Tonya Gooseberry, who authorities said alternatively used the name Tony Gooseberry, pleaded guilty last year to accessory after the fact to second-degree murder, for lying about the toddler's injuries. She received five years of probation. It's unclear why the toddler was named after his grandmother's lover.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/06/harvey_grandmother_pleads_guil.html