JESSE CRUM - 3 Months (2010) - Amherst (W of Cleveland) OH

AMHERST — A 3-month-old boy with cranial bleeding and
bruises was flown to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland Friday
after Amherst police officers found him in a Forest Hill Drive home
where marijuana plants were growing, according to a police report.

The boy, who was not identified initially, was in the home of Dallas and Therese
Jones, the report said. The Joneses were both arrested for possession of
drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana, according to the
report. Their relationship to the injured boy was not described in the report.

The boy's condition was not known yesterday.

More charges are pending against the Jonses, and the case is being
investigated by Amherst police detectives, who could not be reached yesterday.

CLEVELAND - A 3-year-old boy remained in critical condition Saturday
in a Cleveland hospital where he’s being treated for cranial bleeding.
Jesse Crum, of Amherst, was flown to MetroHealth Medical Center on
Friday with bruises all over his body.
A nursing supervisor at the hospital confirmed the child’s condition.
Amherst police said no new developments in the case involving Jesse’s
injuries were made Saturday. Police have not said how Jesse was
injured.
Jesse was treated for second-degree burns to his left leg, thighs,
buttocks and lower back in January 2009, after his mother’s boyfriend,
Peter Jones, put the boy in a scalding bathtub while baby-sitting.
Jones, 22, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of endangering
children. His sentencing has been continued.
Jones’ parents, Dallas Jones and Theresa Jones, were arrested Friday
and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of
marijuana after police found marijuana plants in their 126 Forest Hill
Drive home. Neighbors said Jesse’s mother, who has an infant child with
Peter Jones, lives there with the family.
Police have said additional charges may be filed.

AMHERST — Alyson Sweaney, mother of Jesse Crum, the toddler whose death from head injuries is being investigated by Amherst police, was arrested yesterday morning for assaulting her boyfriend, Peter Jones.

Sweaney, 22, was charged with domestic violence and taken to Lorain County Jail, where she is being held without bond until her appearance Tuesday in Oberlin Municipal Court.

Jones, 22, told Amherst police he was assaulted by Sweaney while they were driving in a car a few blocks from his Forest Hill Drive home. Police saw visible injuries to his arm and the right side of his face, a police report said. Jones’ father, Dallas Jones, made a 911 call about the assault.

Officers went to Sweaney’s Idlewood Drive home, where she was arrested without incident, the report said.

Three-year-old Jesse was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center March 11 with bleeding on the brain and multiple bruises, according to the Amherst Police Department. After performing surgery, the doctors declared Crum was brain dead and would not recover. He died on March 17 and his father, Jessie Crum Sr., donated the boy’s organs.

“If anything good can come out of this, we want Jesse’s organs to go to other babies to help them live,” Crum Sr. has previously said. “He’s going to be a hero.”

Jones pleaded guilty in 2009 to two felony counts of child endangering for scalding the then-2-year-old boy in hot bath water, according to court records. He has not yet been sentenced by Lorain County Common Pleas Court Judge Edward Zaleski.

Jones’ parents, Dallas and Therese Jones, who own the home where Peter Jones lives, were arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana March 12.

Police found more than a dozen marijuana plants while investigating why Crum was taken to the emergency room. Charges were dropped on March 30, according to Amherst Sgt. Dan Jasinski.

“The Amherst Police Department formally requested the Amherst City Prosecutor’s Office to dismiss all charges, with the right to re-file, against Dallas and Therese Jones, of Amherst, for the charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana,” according to a news release from police Lt. Joseph Kucirek. “After reviewing several aspects of the ongoing investigation, the police department felt it was best to dismiss these charges until the investigation is complete.”

Peter Jones, who was awaiting sentencing for scalding a 2-year-old boy
whose death a year later is being investigated, committed suicide,
according to Lorain County Coroner Dr. Paul Matus.
Jones, 23, was the boyfriend of Alyson Sweany, 22, whose son, Jesse Crum Jr., 3, died
from severe head injuries March 17.



Amherst police are still investigating the boy’s death for presentation to the Lorain County
Prosecutor’s Office and a possible grand jury.
Jones hung himself in his bedroom at his parents’ home on Forest Hill Drive, Matus said.
Matus said he is ruling the death a suicide.
“There’s no evidence of anyone else being involved,” Matus said.
No suicide note was found, according to Matus.
“That’s not uncommon,” he said. “Very few people leave notes.”
Jones’ body was found by his mother,
Teresa Jones, about 12:29 a.m. yesterday, according to an Amherst police report.
Teresa Jones, who was home alone with her son, cut his body down and called 911, the report said.
He was taken to Amherst Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Jones pleaded guilty to two counts of child endangering for scalding Jesse Jr. in
January 2009 in hot bath water, according to Lorain County Common Pleas Court records.
He was scheduled for sentencing March 29, but that
was postponed after the boy died.
Last Friday, the court rescheduled Jones’ sentencing,
but the new date was not on the court website yesterday.
Amherst police were alerted March 12 by Lorain County Children Services
that Crum had suffered severe injuries in the Forest Hill Drive home.
By the time police officers arrived, Crum
had been taken to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland.
He died there March 17 with massive head injuries and bruising over much of his body.
Crum was living at the Forest Hill Drive home at the
time of the injuries with Sweany, Jones and Jones’ parents, Dallas and Teresa Jones.
“Anybody in the Forest Hill Drive home is a person
of interest in the boy’s injuries,” Amherst police Detective Sgt. Dan
Jasinski said in a March 24 story in The Morning Journal.
When police went to the Jones home on March 12, they found more than a dozen
marijuana plants growing there.
Initially, homeowners Dallas and Teresa Jones were arrested for
marijuana possession and possession of
drug paraphernalia, but Amherst police dropped the charges March 30,
pending further investigation.
Sweany and Peter Jones were
arrested May 15 after Forest Hill Drive neighbors called police about a
man and woman screaming and fighting in the street.
Amherst police went to the home about 3 a.m. May 15, where Sweany and Jones both
appeared to be drunk, according to Lt. Joseph Kucirek.
The pair was cited for disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct by
intoxication, both misdemeanors.
A pretrial hearing in that case is scheduled for July 9, according to the Oberlin Municipal Court website.

http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2010/07/20/news/mj3047603.txt

Crum Jr. died from pneumonia caused by head injuries
Published: Tuesday, July 20, 2010

By SCOT ALLYN
sallyn@MorningJournal.com

Crum Jr.

AMHERST — Three-year-old Jesse Crum Jr., of Amherst, whose March 17 death triggered a police investigation, died of pneumonia brought on by severe head injuries, the Cuyahoga County coroner has ruled.

The severe head injuries were caused by “violence of undetermined origin,” according to Powell Caesar, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County coroner.

Crum died at MetroHealth Medical Center, in Cleveland, where he was taken March 12, after Amherst police were alerted to the boy’s injuries by Lorain County Children Services.

A couple indicted in connection with the death of a three-year-old boy were arrested Friday then posted bond and were released from jail the Amherst Police Department announced.

Dallas Jones, 55, and Theresa Jones, 50, were indicted on three counts each of endangering children, one count of illegal cultivation of marijuana, and one count of possession of marijuana. (all felonies of the third degree). They were also indicted on another misdemeanor charge of drug paraphernalia.

The couple owned the home where Jesse Crum Jr. suffered fatal injuries. They are the parents of Peter Jones, who is the boyfriend of Crum's mother, Alyson Sweany,

Jesse Crum, Jr., died in March, three-days after he was rushed to MetroHealth in Cleveland from a home on Forest Hill Drive in Amherst. Alyson Sweany, 22, was indicted on three counts of felony child endangering in Lorain County. She pleaded not guilty Thursday.

According to police, Sweany and her boyfriend lived in the house where the child sustained serious head and other injuries, but how Jesse was hurt is still unclear. "It's the worst thing in the world that you could ever imagine, there's nothing worse that I could ever think of that could happen," said Crum.

The child's aunt said she was with Jesse in the hours before he was removed from life-support. "You seen that baby, he had fingerprint bruises on his legs, it looked like he just was picked-up and maybe swung around even, it was crazy, the bruising on this baby," said Krista Crum.

Sweany's former boyfriend, who also lived in the house, has since committed suicide.

"I had been going to court, back and forth, trying to get custody and it just wasn't happening, but I just kept going and was trying to work it out through the courts," said Jesse's father. The Crum family is holding a memorial dinner for Jesse on September 11, 2010 at the VFW in Amherst.

Dallas and Theresa Jones were scheduled to appear for their initial arraignment on September 16 at the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas.

Alyson Sweany, the mother of Jesse Crum Jr., a young boy who died a
year ago this month under unusual circumstances, pleaded guilty Thursday
to three counts of child endangering in connection with the death.




Sweany, 23, of Amherst, pleaded guilty before Lorain County Common
Pleas Judge James Miraldi. Her sentencing date has not been set. She
could be sentenced up to 15 years in prison.
No one has been charged with the death of the 3-year-old boy, who
died March 17, a little more than a week after he was critically injured
at the home of his mother and her boyfriend, Peter Jones.
Sweany and several members of her family told police that the boy was
hurt while climbing on a bookcase to retrieve stickers. They said the
bookcase tipped, and a laptop computer, textbooks and other objects fell
on the boy's head and body.
Police didn't believe the story. An autopsy revealed numerous
injuries on Jesse's body. Officials ruled that Jesse's injuries were the
result of violence of undetermined origin but did not rule his death
either a homicide or an accident.
In 2010, Jones pleaded guilty to child endangering after he placed
Jesse Cum into a bath of scalding water. The boy spent 12 days in the
hospital with second degree burns. Last year, Jones committed suicide.
He left no note explaining his actions.
Still facing charges in the case are Dallas and Therese Jones, the
parents of Peter Jones. The couple were living in the Jones home when
the boy died. Early in the investigation, police said they found
marijuana being grown and cultivated in the house.
Dallas, 55, and Therese Jones, 50, are awaiting trial on charges of
child endangering, illegal cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/03/mother_pleads_guilty_to_child.html

ELYRIA - A judge agreed to give the attorney of Alyson Sweany more
time to look into the possibility that a blood platelet disorder rather
than child abuse caused the death of Jesse Crum Jr.

Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Miraldi at first said he would
deny Paul Griffin’s request for additional time in the case and
continue Sweany’s sentencing one week.

But the judge relented a few minutes later after Griffin asked for a
month to research the case on his own time with the help of a medical
expert to try to determine whether the possible blood disorder was
responsible for the 3-year-old’s death.

Miraldi rescheduled the sentencing for Sept. 22, but denied Griffin’s request for court funds to hire an expert.

Sweany, 23, pled guilty to charges of endangering children March 23
in the March 2010 death of her son, and was to be sentenced Thursday.

Griffin told Miraldi he was not withdrawing Sweany’s guilty plea.

“We just want to explore this issue (the possible blood disorder) to
make sure” it had no possible bearing on the case, Griffin said.

“There are indications that the child may have suffered from a platelet disorder that led to his death. … It’s just a theory.”

If a review by a medical expert leads to a future belief that Sweany
was innocent of the charges she earlier pled guilty to, “it is possible
we would take the issue to trial,” Griffin said.

Objecting to Griffin’s request, Assistant County Prosecutor Laura
Dezort said if such an examination led to Sweany’s guilty plea
ultimately being withdrawn, “all bets would be off about refiling the
case to the grand jury. Miss Sweany pled guilty and admitted her guilt.”

Dezort called the theory about a blood disorder a “delaying tactic” and “red herring.”

“If the child had not been beaten, there probably would not be a
blood disorder,” Dezort said. “This (review) is something that should
have been done long ago.”

The child died in March 2010 at MetroHealth Medical Center in
Cleveland from what medical authorities concluded was blunt head trauma,
brain hemorrhages and pneumonia.

Griffin was appointed as Sweany’s counsel June 27 after John
Chambers, one of the woman’s former attorneys, was disbarred. Another
lawyer, who was a friend of Chambers, opted to step aside from the case
as well.

Although Sweany was not found guilty of inflicting child abuse or
injuries to Jesse, she was guilty of failing to remove the boy from an
environment in which he was exposed “to a ticking time bomb,” Dezort
said. Her remarks referred to Sweany’s boyfriend, Peter Jones, who
hanged himself in June 2010 days before he was to be sentenced on
endangering children charges that sprang from a January 2009 incident in
which the small boy was scalded by hot water while taking a bath at the
Amherst home of Jones’ parents, Dallas and Therese Jones, with whom
Peter Jones and Sweany lived.

Dallas and Therese Jones received probation for endangering children
and drug charges stemming from a marijuana growing operation police
found in their Amherst home while searching for evidence about what
happened to Jesse. The charges they pleaded guilty to were unrelated to
Jesse’s death.

Sweany’s family and friends maintain the child’s injuries resulted
from an episode in which a bookcase the boy climbed on in the Jones’
home toppled over onto him.

Family members of Jesse Crum Sr., the boy’s father, maintained the boy was routinely abused by Jones and Sweany.
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2011/08/26/judge-oks-postponing-sentencing-in-boy%E2%80%99s-death/