LENSLEY MARTIN III - 6 Months - Mount Morris MI

MT. MORRIS TWP. — A young child dead. A young father charged with murder.

It’s become a chillingly familiar refrain this year.

Lensley E. Martin Jr., 18, became the third young father accused of
killing a child under 3 in Genesee County this year when he was
arraigned Wednesday on murder and child abuse charges in the Sept. 29 death of his 6-month-old son, Lensley Martin III.

Township police said they were called to a home on W. Cass Avenue
near Summit about 11 a.m. that morning for a baby not breathing. Lensley
was pronounced dead at a local hospital and the Genesee County Medical
Examiner later ruled the death suspicious, police said.

Krystal Watson said she was at her home Sept. 29 on W. Cass Avenue in Mt. Morris Township when Martin came banging on her door, asking for a phone so he could call 911.

The man told her his baby was not breathing across the street.
Watson, who said she has some CPR training, went over to the home and
administered CPR but said she couldn’t resuscitate the boy.

"There was no hope for him," she said.

Hours after Martin was ordered held without bond in the Genesee
County Jail in the death, funeral services were held for the baby.

Lensley E. Martin Jr.
Family members of the baby declined comment.

Court records Wednesday did not indicate an attorney had been appointed for Martin.

The death came three days after the boy’s mother had filed a Sept. 26
court action to establish Martin’s paternity and begin collection of
child support, according to court records.

Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton declined comment on specifics of the allegations against Martin.

Martin joins two other young Genesee County fathers who face murder charges in their child’s death.

Deangelo J. Henderson, 19, is charged with murder in the alleged
shaking death of his 4-month-old daughter, Nahari, on Jan. 16 in Flint.

In July, Donovan Haynes, 20, was charged with murder in the death of
his 2-year-old daughter Ti’Airra Woodward. Police said Haynes told them
he bit and beat the girl because she had wet herself.

The director of a Flint-based advocacy center for abused children
said teenage parents who abuse children may face more stress in their
lives than others their age.

“You may still be trying to go to school, you’re trying to find a
job, going to doctor’s appointments, these are extra (stress-levels)
that can lead to abuse,” said Weiss Advocacy Center Director Jonquil
Bertschi.

Bertschi said instances of violence are sometimes higher when involving younger men.

“One thing that has been shown is — with shaken baby cases at least —
it’s normally younger people that are perpetrators and normally younger
males that are perpetrators,” Bertschi said.

Cases of child abuse and neglect in Genesee County were twice the
national average in 2009, with 20.6 of every 1,000 children compared to
nine in every 1,000 children nationwide, said Bertschi.

Factors increasing the possibility of child abuse have increased,
said Bertschi, including an evaluation of basic child care and the
economy.

While working with children on a daily basis that have suffered
sexual or physical abuse, witnessed a murder or hoping to find a place
to live, Bertschi said stories like Lensley’s death still shake her to
the core.

“They are awful,” she said. “You think you’ve heard the worst and then something else comes up and you say ‘oh my God’.”
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2011/10/young_father_charged_in_death.html