CEDRIC FRANCOIS - 4 yo (11/2011) - Asheville NC

ASHEVILLE — Police on Friday charged a man with
first-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son
after a preliminary autopsy revealed the child died of head wounds.

Michael
Antonio Dixon Jr., 20, of Asheville, was also charged with felony child
abuse. Preliminary autopsy results found Cedric Francois suffered brain
hemorrhages caused by blunt force trauma.
Dixon was denied bond.
Francois
was taken to Mission Hospital on Wednesday morning and later died. The
boy’s mother, Taquita Francois, said she left him in Dixon’s care while
she worked that morning.
Vigil draws crowd

Nearly
100 people gathered at a candlelight vigil Friday night to sing, pray,
hug and mourn outside the Francois home in Pisgah View Apartments.
“There
are so many single mothers out there just trying to work and do the
best they can,” said the Rev. Joseph T. Hackett of Restoration Church of
Asheville, who addressed the crowd at Friday’s vigil.
“It’s
important not to point fingers in a situation like this, but we want to
help and encourage mothers just to be more careful with who they leave
to care for their children,” Hackett said.
Taquita
Francois, 21, said she left to work a morning shift at a nearby
McDonald’s when Dixon, who was watching the child at the time, called
her about 9 a.m. to say something was wrong with Cedric.
“He said he was in his bed, and he wouldn’t wake up,” Francois said.
Francois
said she rushed home to find the boy unresponsive. As she called 911, a
neighbor performed CPR, but the child died later that day.
A
recording of the 911 call revealed discrepancies in Francois’ original
statements. Lt. Wally Welch said police have not cleared Francois of any
liability in her son’s death, but they believe Dixon acted alone.
Welch
said that the community’s reverence for Cedric was “truly unusual,” a
detail that stood out for detectives throughout the investigation.
“This boy was truly beloved,” Welch said. “That was incredibly clear to all of us.”
http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20111022/NEWS/310220033/Charges-filed-child-s-death?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFrontpage

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Asheville police are have charged a man with murder in the death of a 4-year-old boy.Police
said a call came in to EMS just before 10 a.m. Wednesday from the
Pisgah View Apartments in reference to an unconscious and unresponsive
child.Police said Mission Hospital representatives contacted
detectives after the boy, identified as Cedric Francois died. Hospital
personnel told detectives the child had a number of questionable
injuries that were worthy of an investigation.On Thursday, the
child’s mother, 21-year-old Taquita Francois, told News 4 that her son
had sickle cell trait, asthma and a heart murmur. She said that she
hoped the cause of death is from one of those.On Friday night, Asheville police said they charged Francois' boyfriend, Michael Antonio Dixon Jr., with murder and child abuse.Francois
said while she was at work Wednesday morning, her boyfriend took care
of Cedric. She said her boyfriend called her and said Cedric was
unresponsive, so she rushed home and called 911."My boyfriend
called me and he was panicking and he was crying," Francois said. "They
said they tried everything they could to revive him, but he wouldn't
come back."Francois said police told her Cedric had bruises on
his body, and that's why they're investigating, but she said nobody ever
abused him.“I just feel like I have no reason to live,” Francois said. “My son was everything to me."Francois
said that Cedric will be buried in Miami where they are from. He will
either be buried next to her mom, or his father, who she says was
killed.“I just want people to know that you need to cherish every
moment with your kids because I felt like something like this could
never happen to me,” Francois said. “Whether they get on your nerves,
stress you out, just appreciate your kids fullest."The charges
were filed after an autopsy revealed the boy died of hemorrhages to the
brain, brought on by blunt force trauma to the head.Neighbors said they were worried about the effect Dixon was having at the home."We
told (Taquita) like many, many times what was going on, but she was
blinded," Britney Hadden said. "Because she was afraid of this man, and I
understand, but I just hate that it happened.""(Cedric) was like
one of our kids, like all the other kids in the neighborhood. We treat
them all the same, nobody gets treated different around here," Natasha
Waters said. "What went on behind those closed doors shouldn't have been
going down."
Read more: http://www.wyff4.com/news/29535430/detail.html#ixzz1bZIvfTuB

The Asheville man charged with the murder of a four year old boy found
beaten to death Wednesday appeared in court today. Mike Dixon, Junior
was granted a court appointed attorney and locked up without bond. He's
also facing a felony child abuse charge in the death of Cedric
Francois.

Police are also looking at possibly charging the boy's
mother in the case. Taquita Francois told police she was at work and
her son was left in Dixon's care. Neighbors say she knew her son was
being abused but didn't do anything to stop it. They say Dixon has a
history of violence and police had been to their home in the past.

News 13 is now trying to confirm reports that D.S.S was investigating claims of abuse before the boy's death.
http://www.wlos.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wlos_vid_5752.shtml

ASHEVILLE — Police obtained dental impressions from a
man charged with the murder of a 4-year-old boy to compare with a bite
mark found on the victim’s arm, according to court records.Impressions
also were taken from the mother of Cedric Francios, who died Oct. 19 of
head injuries after being found unresponsive in his bed at Pisgah View
Apartments.
Michael Antonio Dixon Jr., 20,
of Asheville, was charged with first-degree murder and felony child
abuse two days after the child’s death. He remains in the Buncombe
County jail under no bond.
Taquita Francois, the boy’s
mother, said she left him in the care of Dixon, her boyfriend, while she
worked the morning of the day he died.
http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20111027/NEWS01/111027004/Autopsy-reveals-bite-mark-arm-slain-child?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFrontpage%7Cs

ASHEVILLE — The attorney for a man charged with
killing his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son has asked the state appeals
court to delay the release of social services records in the case.The
records are a summary of actions the Buncombe County Department of
Social Services took after being warned Cedric Francois was being
abused.
Michael
Antonio Dixon Jr., 20, of Asheville, is charged with first-degree murder
and felony child abuse in the child’s Oct. 19 death.
A
state law designed to hold social workers accountable makes some DSS
records public when a child dies while under the agency’s care.
The N.C. Court of Appeals on Friday issued a 10-day stay of Superior Court Judge Alan Thornburg’s order to release the records.
The appeals court might extend the stay while it considers Dixon’s claim.
Dixon, through his attorney Al Messer, says releasing the records will harm his right to a fair trial.
Thornburg
ordered the records be made public in response to a lawsuit brought by
the Citizen-Times. They were to be released Monday.
The newspaper has filed a brief with the appeals court opposing Dixon’s request for a stay.
It
said in court papers that the purpose of disclosing the records is to
focus on the “circumstances surrounding the fatality and the response of
the Department of Social Services.”
Citizen-Times attorney Gary Rowe said Monday that a delay is unacceptable.
“The
more overriding problem to me is, again not saying that social services
did anything wrong, but if they did and if that is continuing, then
you’ve got other children out there who are being subject to the same
inaction or actions that are being taken or not being taken by the
department,” he said.
Thornburg
reviewed the DSS records and found releasing them would not harm
Dixon’s right to a fair trial, though he did give the state a one-month
waiting period before releasing the records to finish its criminal
investigation.
DSS refused to release the records under advice from District Attorney Ron Moore’s office.

Dixon intervened in the civil case between DSS and the newspaper.He
took his claim to the appeals court after Thornburg last week denied a
similar stay motion filed in Buncombe County Superior Court.
Some
information about the steps DSS took in the matter were made public in
search warrants obtained by city police, although court papers do not
provide all the details of the agency’s actions.
DSS Director Mandy Stone declined comment, citing the civil and criminal cases.
Social
workers received a report Sept. 3 that the boy was being abused by
Dixon; that he had marks and scars on his body; and that Dixon sold
drugs from the home where the child lived, according a city police
search warrant.
Social
workers “put a safety plan into place that stated (Dixon) needed to be
seen and interviewed as part of the assessment process,” police said in
court papers.
The
child’s mother told a social worker three days after the visit that she
broke up with Dixon, according to the police search warrant application,
and DSS wasn’t able to make contact with the man.
The warrant gives no other indication of the extent social workers followed up on concerns about the child’s safety.

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20111220/NEWS/312200015/Release-DSS-records-delayed?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Frontpage|s

the mother should've been charged as well

I agree flash. She told DCF that the monster boyfriend wasn't living there plus neighbors warned her that he was abusing the boy, but she still let that POS watch the boy and beat him to death. She needs to serve time too. If Cedric was everything to her then why did she put the child beater boyfriend first? This is snipped from an article above:

"Francois said police told her Cedric had bruises on his body, and that's why they're investigating, but she said nobody ever abused him.“I just feel like I have no reason to live,” Francois said. “My son was everything to me."