DAE'VON BAILEY - 6 yo - South Los Angeles CA

Police are investigating the murder of a 6-year-old boy at his South Los Angeles home Thursday night.
Family has identified the victim as Dae'von Bailey. They say he would have turned 7 years old in August. Police say the boy's stepfather, 35-year-old Marcas Fisher, is a person of interest in the case. Investigators say Dae'von was a victim of child abuse. His body was
removed from his home by coroners shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday.
The LAPD was called to the home on the 800 block of East 87th Place
at around 6:30 p.m. to investigate a possible death. When officers
arrived they found the first grader dead with multiple unexplained
injuries, including blunt force trauma. Police say Fisher was
the last known caretaker of the child, but he was gone from the home
when paramedics and officers arrived. The child's family says
Fisher had called family members Thursday telling them he had beaten
the young boy. Family members say the child didn't deserve this violent
death. "That's really hard for me to understand who he would
go to that level, you know what I'm saying, knowing that that's a
child," said Kiara Sharp, the victim's aunt. "If you felt that much
anger you should have went around the block or something. You know, go
get some air or something, you don't put your hand on no child like
that." Dae'von's mother, who has five other children, four of
whom are in protective custody, says Fisher was caring for her young
son while she found a place to live. She said she never thought her ex
was capable of such violence. "I was shocked, surprised. You
know, I never thought he, you know, would do something like that to my
son," said Tylette Davis, Dae'von's mother. Family members insist the stepfather killed the boy and is now on the run. The boy's mom is urging Fisher to turn himself in. "I just want him to turn himself in because what he did to my son was
wrong and he took a big part of me, a part of my life," said Davis. Neighbors say the family had only moved into the neighborhood a few
months ago. They say they hadn't seen any signs of trouble. "Every time I've seen them, they're, you know. a bunch of kids in the
yard playing, happy, friendly, you know, normal kids," said Tasha, a
neighbor. Family members say the boy was an extremely quiet boy who loved to play outside. They say they can't believe he is gone. Authorities are not calling Fisher a suspect, but they do want to talk with him. Investigators are asking anyone with information to call the Los
Angeles Police Department at (877) LAPD-24-7, that's (877) 527-3247.

A 6-year-old boy whose battered body was found on the floor of a South
Los Angeles home was the subject of roughly a dozen calls to Los
Angeles County's child abuse hotline alleging abuse or neglect, a
county official briefed on the case told The Times on Friday.

Dae'von
Bailey had injuries that suggested blows or other trauma over an
extended period of time, said Lt. Vincent Neglia of the LAPD's Abused
Child Section. Police are searching for the boy's stepfather, Marcas
Fisher, 36, as a "person of interest" in the case.

Dae'von's death appears to fit a pattern in
which children have been killed after their cases already had come to
the attention of county child welfare officials. The Times previously
reported that last year, 14 children died after being evaluated by the
county Department of Children and Family Services. Some of those deaths
involved breakdowns in the system in which some agencies knew about
potential abuse but had failed to share the information with other
agencies. In other cases, investigators found that poor decisions by
social workers had contributed to the deaths.

The county Board of Supervisors has repeatedly been warned by auditors and other experts
that the child welfare system lacks efficient ways to share information
about risks faced by children. After the reports in The Times, the
board last month voted to approve a new effort to ensure that agencies
share information.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes South Los Angeles, called on the board Friday to appoint an independent investigator to thoroughly review Dae'von's case. Thomas
said the probe should include looking at the boy's contact with Family
Services and any other government agencies to identify any breakdowns
that might have contributed to his death. The inquiry, if approved,
would be the first of its kind since 2006.

"We need to get to the bottom of this,"
Ridley-Thomas said. "To have a county that has a stain on its image, to
have children dying under these circumstances, is very, very difficult
to bear. . . . The public has a right to have confidence that we are
taking care of these matters competently."

Family Services Director Trish Ploehn, who since taking office two years ago has made
better accountability of social workers a top priority, said she's
already launched "a full and comprehensive internal investigation."

"This was a tragic and senseless death," Ploehn said. "I've had a full team of people looking at it all day."

On Friday, neighbors on South 87th Place tried to make sense of what had
happened to Dae'von, whom they described as a sweet, well-behaved
child. Relatives found him dead on the floor after being alerted by a
frantic call from an unidentified person in his home. Fisher was not in
the house when officers arrived. Neglia said Fisher had "no history of
violent crime" but that he did have a history of property crimes. The
coroner's office had not determined the cause of death.

The county official, who was not authorized to comment on the case and
therefore spoke on condition of anonymity, said the dozen calls
reporting abuse or neglect occurred at various times in Dae'von's life.
The source said county officials had opened an investigation after each
call. But it remained unclear Friday whether social workers had
concluded that abuse had occurred or whether the county had an active
case file on Dae'von at the time of his death.

The boy's mother, Tylette Davis, 28, said Fisher had been with her when she was pregnant
with Dae'von, but he wasn't the boy's biological father. She separated
from him some time ago.

Davis said she never witnessed Fisher
abuse Dae'von, but she said that about three years ago, Fisher
"whipped" one of her older sons until "his butt was all red."

Davis said that none of her six children, including Dae'von, were living with
her because she was "going through things, and I thought he could take
care of the kids while I got my stuff together."

Dae'von and Davis' 5-year-old daughter -- who is now in protective custody -- were
staying with Fisher; a 14-year-old daughter was staying with a cousin
in Compton; and her other three children were staying with her mother,
also in Compton.

Early Friday morning, shortly after she was
notified of her son's death, Davis said county social workers went to
her mother's home and removed her 9-year-old son, 10-year-old daughter
and 11-year-old son. She said that she asked a woman why they couldn't
stay with her.

"She said I made a bad judgment by letting my
two youngest kids stay with" Fisher, Davis said. "I'm hurt. I just lost
my son," Davis said. "There's no way to describe the pain. . . . I want
Marcas to turn himself in."

Neighbors said Fisher and the children had moved into the house about three months ago. The street,
with tall palm trees and tidy stucco homes and apartments, is described
by residents as a relatively quiet oasis -- neutral ground for the
street gangs that battle over turf elsewhere.

Neighbor Kevin Davis, 49, no relation to Tylette, said Dae'von would stand ramrod
straight in the front yard of the house, like a soldier, whenever he
came home. With his little sister at his side, the boy would wait for
Davis to give them a playful military salute.

"Hey, new neighbors!" Kevin Davis would say. The children would respond with their own salute.

"He smiled when he would see me, man," Davis said of the boy. "He would
stop in his play so he could stand and salute me. He was a sweet kid."

Davis said Fisher moved in with his brother, who had lived there by himself.
At least two other children -- possibly belonging to Fisher -- and
Dae'von and his little sister lived there, Davis said.

Davis
added that on Thursday, he had not seen the children playing in the
front yard -- something he found odd because Dae'von and the others
were outside most days.

He and other neighbors say they heard
the movie "Medea Goes to Jail" playing loudly in the house. Davis said
the film seemed to be playing in a loop, along with a taped performance
by comedian Katt Williams. Later, he wondered whether the sounds were
intended to cover up tumult inside the house.

Davis said he left for Bible study in the early evening and that when he returned, the street was blocked by police cruisers.

"When I came back, my brother said, 'Man, they killed that boy,' " Davis recalled.

Friday morning, a neighbor placed white balloons on the front door of the
house. A stuffed lion in an aviator outfit sat on the stoop, along with
a votive candle with an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

At a news conference at the South Los Angeles home where Dae'von Bailey
was found dead Thursday evening, activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson of the
Los Angeles Policy Roundtable called today for 36-year-old Marcas
Fisher to surrender.

"We're calling for the surrender of Marcas (Fisher)," he said at the home the 800 block of East 87th Place.

An autopsy on the boy's body is pending.

Fisher was in jail for a drunken driving arrest last month, according to the sheriff's Web site, and released June 28.

Hutchinson said he was talking to neighbors, trying to drum up leads on where
Fisher might be. He said he also wanted to talk to the mother.

"We're going to put the screws on to find her. She is the face of this,"
Hutchinson said. "We certainly want her out here (helping find
Fisher)."

Police have questioned the woman, who apparently did not live with her son.

County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas called for an investigation Friday after
it was disclosed that child welfare authorities had received about a
dozen calls about suspected abuse at the home.

Hutchinson questioned what was going on.

"How could this (Bailey's death) happen with all of the attention that has
been placed on children services?" he asked. "The ball was missed
somewhere. Obviously, there was negligence on the part of this agency.
It has to corrected. We want a real shake-up (in the agency) from top
to bottom. We don't want to see any more Dae'von Baileys."

Family Services Director Trish Ploenhn said she's already launched a "full and comprehensive investigation."

Neighbors said Fisher moved in to the home about two months ago.

Relatives found Dae'von dead on the floor after being alerted by a frantic call
from an unidentified person in the home, according to published
reports. Fisher was not in the house when police arrived.

Anyone with more information was asked to call police at (213) 485-2801 during
normal weekday office hours or (877) LAPD-24-7 around the clock.

A man captured by police and believed to be the killer of a
6-year-old boy in South Los Angeles turned out not to be the suspect
after all, officials said today.
Dozens of police officers surrounded a neighborhood in South Los
Angeles about 8:40 p.m. Tuesday, sealing off a several blocks around
Avalon Boulevard and 90th Street and using dogs to track down Marcas
Fisher, 36.
Fisher is suspected of beating his stepson, Dae’von Bailey, to
death. Dae'von's battered body was found last Thursday on the floor of
a house in South Los Angeles.
The boy had been the subject of about a dozen calls to Los Angeles
County’s child-abuse hotline, and authorities have said his body showed
signs of trauma that had been inflicted over an extended period of time.
Authorities said they received a call about 8 p.m. Tuesday reporting
a sighting of Fisher. Officers pursued the man on foot, lost him, then
sealed off the area where he was believed to be hiding.
Police, however, determined the man they had chased down and
captured was not Fisher but another man wanted on a misdemeanor warrant.

Police combed a South Los Angeles neighborhood overnight in a search
for a man wanted as a person of interest in the beating death of his
6-year-old stepson, but the man evaded capture, authorities said.

Police began closing in on their target around 8:40 p.m. Tuesday, when
officers tried to chase down a man believed to be Marcas Fisher near
90th Street and Avalon Boulevard, said Officer Karen Rayner of the Los
Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Section.

The man fled into a South Los Angeles neighborhood, triggering a multipronged
search involving ground, air and canine units within a perimeter in the
area of 94th Street and Stanford Avenue, she said.

But Fisher was not found, and police called off the search about 2:30 a.m., said
Officer Bruce Borihanh, also of the LAPD's Media Relations Section.

Fisher, 36, has been sought for questioning by police since Thursday evening,
when his stepson, Dae'von Bailey, was found dead on the floor of house
in the 800 block of East 87th Place.

Relatives found Dae'von body after being alerted by a frantic call from an unidentified person
in the home. Fisher, the last known person to have been with the child,
was not in the house when officers arrived, police said.

The boy had been the subject of roughly a dozen calls to Los Angeles
County's child abuse hotline, and authorities have said his body showed
signs of trauma inflicted over an extended period, the Los Angeles
Times reported.

Fisher was in jail on suspicion of drunken
driving last month, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department Web site. He was released June 28.

Anyone with information on the case was asked to call police at (213) 485-2801
during normal weekday office hours or (877) LAPD-24-7 around the clock.

Los Angeles police say an
arrest warrant has been issued for a man suspected of beating his
6-year-old stepson to death last week. Police say the warrant for
the arrest of 36-year-old Marcas Fisher was issued late Tuesday night
and carries $2 million bond. Relatives found Fisher's stepson, Dae'von Bailey, dead last Thursday at his home. Police
say Fisher was the last known person to have been with the child, but
he had disappeared by the time officers arrived. Detectives say
the child had been temporarily living with his stepfather under an
custody agreement that child welfare officials had approved. Police say Fisher is on probation for burglary and drug convictions and was convicted of gang rape when he was a teenager.

Los Angeles police officials investigating the beating death of a
6-year-old boy raised questions today about why the boy was living with
the man who is now accused of killing him.
Police issued an arrest warrant this afternoon for 36-year-old
Marcas Fisher, who is suspected of fatally beating Dae'von Bailey, the
son of his former girlfriend, last week.
LAPD Cmdr. Patrick Gannon said Fisher had a history of property and
narcotics crimes. When he was a teenager, he was convicted of rape.
Despite the record, Lt. Vincent Neglia said, county officials approved
an agreement between Fisher and the boy’s mother that placed Dae’von in
his home.
Additionally, LAPD Det. Frank Ramirez told The Times that Dae’von
informed adults at his school in Lakewood in April and June that he had
been abused. Officials at the school relayed the information to the
county, he said.
“The boy did what he should do,” Ramirez said. “He reported it to
the school, and the school did what they should do. They reported it to
[the county Department of Children and Family Services]. And
unfortunately he’s dead.”
Police officials warned the public that anyone who helped Fisher avoid apprehension could be criminally liable.
Gannon said there is no doubt some friends and/or family are
protecting him and helping him evade arrest. The commander said county
prosecutors were considering filing charges of harboring a suspect and
impeding an investigation.

Officials
at a clinic that treated Dae'von Bailey six weeks before he was found
beaten to death said Friday that their staff had warned social workers
he might be an abuse victim, contradicting an account by the Los
Angeles County child welfare department about how it dealt with the
abuse allegations.

According to the clinic's chief executive, a pediatric nurse
practitioner who examined the boy in June told a county social worker
that she thought his mother's former boyfriend might be abusing him and
questioned whether Dae'von should live with the man, Marcas Fisher.


That account differs from a timeline presented by the Department of
Children and Family Services to county officials. The department's
report said the medical provider who examined the boy found "there were
no signs of physical abuse" and "she had no concerns for Dae'von." The
social worker who looked into the allegations labeled the charge of
abuse "unfounded" and closed the case. In both April and June, social
workers examined allegations that Fisher had abused Dae'von -- and both
times decided to leave the boy with him.

The 6-year-old was found beaten to death last week, and police have issued a murder warrant for Fisher.

The clinic's role in the case underscores how the system designed to
protect children from abuse can fall short. Clinic officials said they
expressed their concerns about abuse in phone conversations with the
social worker. Experts said they should have put their warning in
writing.







Jim Mangia, chief executive of St. John’s Well Child & Family Center,
said the nurse practitioner examined the boy at one of the center's
clinics in Compton on June 4 after an adult at the boy's school
reported that Dae'von had said Fisher punched him in the stomach.

The nurse practitioner checked Dae'von's stomach and found no bruising.
But Mangia said blows to the stomach don't always produce visible
injuries. The nurse noticed scratches on the left side of the boy's
face. Alone with her in the exam room, Dae'von said he had been hit by
Fisher in the stomach, chest and, before that, the nose, Mangia said.

Dae'von was accompanied to the doctor's office by a woman who
identified herself as his mother. After the private interview, she came
into the room. At that point, Dae'von changed his story and denied
Fisher beat him, Mangia said.

"The inconsistency is a perfect example of what happens when a child is
abused," Mangia said. "Children change their story when there's either
a threat or they're in fear of a threat."

A few weeks earlier, the clinic had treated Dae'von for a bloody
nose, Mangia said. At the time, the injury didn't seem unusual. But
after Dae'von said he had been beaten, the nurse practitioner
reconsidered the significance of the bloody nose, he added. She called
the county's child abuse hotline to report her concerns, he said.

Later that day, the nurse practitioner called the social worker on
Dae'von's case and said she thought the boy might be the victim of
abuse, Mangia said. She also informed the social worker about the
bloody nose, he added.

According to Dr. Linda Tigner-Weekes, the clinic's medical director,
the nurse practitioner specifically raised concerns with the social
worker about having Dae'von live with Fisher. "She even asked the
social worker, 'Is it safe to send him home?' The social worker asked,
'Do you see any signs of bruising?' -- which is a dumb question to ask
because you cannot rely just on bruising."

County officials have declined to answer specific questions about
Dae'von's death, which has sparked a public outcry and comes as the
family services department struggles to address a pattern in which
children have been killed after their cases have come to child welfare
officials' attention.

In response to Mangia's allegations, Trish Ploehn, director of Children
and Family Services, told The Times: "I am not in agreement with what
St. John's portrayal of their communication with our department is, and
as soon as we can release those records, we will, and they will clearly
refute the information that was provided by them."

Ploehn, who since taking office two years ago has made better
accountability for social workers a top priority, launched an
investigation after Dae'von was found dead July 23. On Thursday, she
announced several new policies, including more administrative oversight
of child abuse cases.

Several key questions have been raised about how the county handled
Dae'von's case. According to Los Angeles police detectives, social
workers had approved an agreement between Fisher and the boy's mother
that placed Dae'von in the man's home. Fisher had been convicted of
rape as a teenager and had a criminal record as an adult.

Mangia said the nurse practitioner never sent a written document to the
family services department warning that Dae'von may have been abused.
The social worker told the nurse during the phone call that there was
no need for a written report, Mangia said. In retrospect, "we should
have filed some formal report," he added.

But one leading expert in child abuse law said that if Mangia's account
was accurate, there were several breakdowns in the process.

The social worker should have had the boy examined by forensic
pediatricians at one of six county-run centers that specialize in
detecting child abuse, said Dr. Astrid Heger, executive director of the
L.A. County-USC Violence Intervention Program.

And any medical professional who believes a child has been abused is
obligated to send a written report to the family services department.

A phone call "is not good enough. The law requires that every medical
professional who suspects child abuse call the hotline and file a
written report," Heger said. "You have to file this report in writing
so there's a paper trail to show you made every effort to protect a
child from abuse. In the absence of a written report, it's like it did
not happen."

Whether the woman who accompanied the boy to the clinic in June was
actually his mother, Tylette Davis, remains unclear. Davis, 28, said
Thursday that she was not aware of any allegations that Dae'von was
being abused. She could not be reached for comment Friday. In an
earlier interview, she said the boy and her 5-year-old daughter were
living with Fisher so she could "deal with some issues."

Los Angeles Police Department investigators have been looking for
Fisher for more than a week. Detectives believe he's in hiding with
help from family or friends. They warned that any person found to be
harboring him could also face criminal charges.

"We want to get this guy," said LAPD Det. Frank Ramirez of the abused
child unit. "This is a different type of crime. This is what has people
so fired up, why people are so emotional and passionate. Because this
was just a child."

Funeral services were held Saturday for a 6-year-old boy who was found
beaten to death last week. Hundreds of people gathered at the Light of
the World Church of God in Christ in Compton for the service.
Dae'von Bailey was found dead July 23 in a house in South Los Angeles. Police officers suspect his stepfather, Marcas Fisher is responsible for the murder, but Fisher has eluded arrest. Police say Fisher, 36, was the last known caretaker of the child, but
he was gone from the home when paramedics and officers arrived. Police searched the area around 90th Street and Avalon Boulevard for
hours Tuesday night after someone spotted Fisher. But despite a foot
chase and an aerial search, Fisher was able to get away.

County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas wants answers and is demanding an
independent investigation into the deaths of three children under the
care of the Department of Child and Family Services.
On Saturday morning two-year-old Jasmine Granados was found dead inside
her home in Athens. Supervisor Ridley-Thomas said the toddler's mother
is underage and is also a ward of the state. The mother has been
questioned by authorities. Investigators are waiting on autopsy results
to figure out exactly how the child died.
The mysterious death comes weeks after the death of 6-year-old
Dae'von Bailey. Bailey was found beaten to death in a home in South Los
Angeles. The child's mother's ex-boyfriend is suspected of the crime
but has eluded arrest. Investigators said Bailey was the
subject of at least a dozen calls to Los Angeles County's child abuse
hotline; however the first-grader was left in the care of his accused
killer.
Supervisor Ridley-Thomas said he wants to know how these children
fell through the cracks and wants to make sure the county does more to
protect children in the care of DCFS. "I believe that it is
important to implement the appropriate software systems and new
technologies that will send alerts and warnings that will make it
better for the workers that have to deal with these issues as well as
protecting the children and saving their lives," said Ridley-Thomas. Ridley-Thomas is also calling for an independent review into the death
of 14-year-old Semaj Spencer. Spencer was killed in a hit-and-run
accident last Sunday. Spencer was also being supervised by DCFS.

Marcas Fisher had eluded authorities for nearly a month after
Dae'Von Bailey was found dead in a South L.A. home July 23. Authorities
found Fisher by followed a trail of his drug use.

For almost a month, Marcas Fisher eluded a police dragnet.

Detectives fielded reports that Fisher -- suspected in the beating
death of a 6-year-old boy in South Los Angeles -- was seen walking
around and even riding a bike in the neighborhood.

He was always one step ahead, even after the Los Angeles Police
Department sealed off an entire neighborhood. Despite the notoriety of
the case, investigators believe Fisher was sheltered by friends and
relatives.

But early Wednesday morning, police had caught up with Fisher, in part by following a trail of his drug use.

According to law enforcement sources, investigators managed through
street contacts to determine that Fisher was buying drugs in North Las
Vegas and staying in an apartment there with his girlfriend.

About 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, investigators watched as Fisher walked
out of an apartment to allegedly buy drugs from someone in a car. He
was wearing a disguise: A blue do-rag bandanna with fake dreadlocks
that looked like the Manny Ramirez wigs sold at Dodger Stadium,
according to a law enforcement source who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the case was ongoing.

Two hours later, he was arrested while still wearing the wig and smoking a marijuana cigarette, the source said.

"Mr. Fisher has a long history with narcotics, and that's partly what
led to his capture," said LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie Beck at a news
conference in Los Angeles.

Beck said suspects like Fisher present challenges because they often do
not leave a trail of financial records. They do not have credit or
debit cards, often don't have cars or driver's licenses or use the
Internet or cellphones.

"People on the fringes like Marcas here don't have that. So you have to
work on things that are markers for them," Beck said. "His marker was
drug use."

Though he declined to go into detail, Beck said "modern technology" was
also used to locate Fisher, as was cooperation between 25 police
agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service. Detectives are
investigating whether to seek charges against anyone for harboring him.

Fisher is accused of beating and killing Dae'von Bailey on July 23. The
case has outraged the community and raised questions about how social
workers and medical providers dealt with his case. Social workers
received several reports that Dae'von was being abused but never took
him out of Fisher's home.

Dae'von, a kindergartner, told adults at his school in Lakewood that
Fisher had physically abused him, punching him in the nose and the
stomach, first in April and again in June. In both cases, the boy was
taken to a private doctor, and social workers concluded that Dae'von's
allegations either were not true or could not be substantiated,
according to documents obtained by The Times. The boy's family has been
the subject of about a dozen abuse or neglect allegations since 1999.

According to newly released records from the Department of Children and
Family Services, Dae'von "was found dead in his locked home after
[Fisher] called a friend to say he was beating the child." The records
were released after The Times requested them.

When Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics arrived, rigor mortis had
set in. Authorities believe that Dae'von had been dead for at least two
hours.

The report said he had multiple bruises in different stages of healing:
on his face, arm and head. He had multiple cuts to his chest and back
and multiple small cuts to both feet and the top of both feet below the
ankle.The boy's 5-year-old sister was in the home and apparently
witnessed his death and was with Dae'von's body without any adults
present for more than an hour, according to relatives.

The brutality of the boy's death was such that one of his uncles said
that even members of the gang that Fisher had been affiliated with
vowed to Dae'von's grandparents that they would not help Fisher escape
if he came to them.

"They said they turned their back on him. It embarrassed them, him
killing a little kid he basically raised," said Katari Davis, 29, the
brother of Dae'von's mother. "They said they were sorry for this, and
if we ever see him, there's gonna be a bad outcome for him."

The boy's mother, Tylette Davis, 28, expressed gratitude to law enforcement for apprehending the man accused of killing her son.

"I've just been thanking God all day," she said at a news conference in
front of the house where Dae'von died. "I can sleep better at night
now."

At the time of the boy's killing, none of Davis' six children were
living with her. She said that she was dealing with "some issues" and
had family members and Fisher, her ex-boyfriend, look after her
children. Fisher, whose rap sheet includes property and drug crimes as
well as a juvenile conviction for rape -- was not Dae'von's biological
father.

Fisher was arrested two days after what would have been the boy's 7th
birthday. "There's so much relief" as a result of the arrest, Katari
Davis said.

"His birthday was a sad day for us, because he wasn't here, and his killer had still not been brought in."

A man has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges in the beating death of a 6-year-old Los Angeles boy. A
district attorney's office spokeswoman says Marcas Fisher entered not
guilty pleas Wednesday to one count of murder and one count of assault
on a child causing death in Compton Superior Court. Fisher is accused of killing Dae'von Bailey in his South Los Angeles home. The boy's body was found July 23. Fisher was found last week in Las Vegas by a multi-agency fugitive apprehension team. Police
say child welfare officials placed the boy with Fisher under a
temporary custody agreement. Police say Fisher was on probation for
burglary and drug convictions and was convicted of gang rape when he
was a teenager.

Man Who Beat Dae'von Bailey to Death Gets 25 Years to Life
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-boy-body-found,0,484184.story

KTLA News

4:20 a.m. PST, December 16, 2009
LOS ANGELES -- A man who pleaded guilty to the beating and bludgeoning death of his ex-girlfriend's 6-year-old son was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years to life in state prison.

Compton Superior Court Judge John J. Cheroske imposed the term on 36-year-old Marcas Catrell Fisher, who pleaded guilty Nov. 19 to first-degree murder in the death of Dae'von Bailey.

The boy's body was found July 23 at a home in the 800 block of East 87th Place in South Los Angeles.

The boy's mother, who is Fisher's ex-girlfriend, had left her son in his care.

Prosecutors said Fisher became upset with the child and beat him over a lengthy period of time.

Fisher -- who had prior convictions for sexual battery and burglary -- was taken into custody in North Las Vegas on Aug. 19.

His arrest involved members of a multi-agency task force including Los Angeles police detectives, the U.S. Marshals Service, Department of Justice and members of the North Las Vegas and Las Vegas Metro police departments.

In exchange for Fisher's plea to the murder charge, prosecutors dropped a second count against him -- assault on a child causing death.

The County Department of Children and Family Services got about a dozen tips about possible abuse involving the boy, but left the child in Fisher's care.

Documents showed in April that the boy told adults at school that Fisher abused him and twice received medical care in the months before he was killed.

Police said the boy had reported alleged abuse by the suspect to school officials, and those officials in turn told the Department of Children and Family Services about the situation.

But Fisher denied the abuse claims and social workers let the child remain with him.

"The boy did what he should do," LAPD Det. Frank Ramirez said. "He reported it to the school, and the school did what they should do.

They reported it to [the county Department of Children and Family Services] And unfortunately he's dead."

Police say Fisher is on probation for burglary and drug convictions and was convicted of gang rape when he was a teenager.

Despite all this, the county department had allowed the child to stay with Fisher as part of an agreement with the boy's mother.

Dae'Von's aunt, Kiara Sharp, told police she believes the first-grader was beaten to death by Fisher.

Davis and her current boyfriend, DeAndre Callies, told a reporter that Fisher had severely "whipped" Dae'Von's older brother a few years ago.

County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has called for an investigation into Bailey's death.

And Family Services Director Trish Ploenhn said she's already launched a "full and comprehensive investigation."

so i wonder what the outcome of the "full and comprehensive investigation" was? i am guessing business as usual - everyone failed this poor child.