DEONDRAY ASHE - 2 yo(2010) - Lakeland FL

Lakeland FL ---- Born three months premature, Deondray Ashe spent most of his
brief life in a hospital setting. The Lakeland toddler came home in October to full-time nursing care.

Eight months later, he died in his house, not of his health issues but beaten to death, according to
Lakeland police investigators, who have charged his stepfather in his murder.





The toddler's full-time nursing care ended in early March once his mother, Ina Marcia Brown, 33,
returned to her job as a licensed practical nurse at a Polk County
nursing home, making her ineligible for full Medicaid, state child welfare officials said.
The first sign of trouble came later that month.
On March 26 when 2-year-old Deondray turned up
at Lakeland Regional Medical Center with two fractured ribs. An
investigation by the Florida Department of Children & Families ruled
out child abuse based on input from the hospital's physicians, said Ann
Berner, circuit administrator for the DCF in Lakeland.
Around 2 p.m. Monday, Deondray was found dead when police were summoned
to the child's home at 1702 Fredricksburg Ave.
The child's stepfather, Marcus Brown, 29, was arrested at 11 p.m. Tuesday
and is being held in the Polk County Jail, charged with first-degree
murder and aggravated child abuse.





An autopsy showed Deondray died Monday of head injuries,
said Sgt. Terri Smith, a spokeswoman for the Lakeland Police
Department. The boy suffered an estimated 28 injuries to his head, face and upper back.
“It's a terrible crime,” Smith said during Wednesday morning's news conference at police headquarters.
There was a witness to the abuse inflicted on Deondray on several occasions
throughout Sunday, she said, but investigators are withholding the
identity of the person.
It was unclear how long the boy had been dead by the time police arrived
at his home. The official cause of death is blunt trauma to the head.
“This is so tragic,” said Berner, whose office has been involved with the family, which included
three other children, ages 10, 5 and 2 months, ever since Deondray's
hospitalization for injuries to his ribs.
Those three children have been placed with relatives,
even though their mother has not been charged with a crime, according to
Berner and Smith.
Deondray's hospitalization in March triggered DCF's services, which included
assistance in applying for Florida KidCare, the state's subsidized
health insurance program, and specialized day care for Deondray through
Medicaid Share of Cost.
Child investigators had no reason to suspect abuse in the home, Berner said.
“There was no (record) of domestic violence, no substance abuse, none of the obvious things that
you would say this is a problem family,” she said. “We didn't see any
indications that he was anything but a happy, bouncy baby.”
A complete report of DCF's investigation and actions after Deondray's injuries will soon be made
public, Berner said, although she couldn't provide a specific date.
LPD's Smith gave scant information about Marcus Brown, who was arrested late Tuesday night and
booked into the county jail early Wednesday morning. He had no known job, she said.
Court records show that the Browns were married April 23, 2009. Smith said it
was unclear if any of the children in their home were Marcus Brown's.
Smith said Deondray was born premature at 25 weeks, although she wasn't sure at what hospital. The
infant, weighing slightly more than 1 pound, was transferred to St.
Joseph's Children's Hospital. After five months he was taken to Sabal
Palms Health Care Center in Largo for rehabilitation until his release in October.
At home, Medicaid paid for skilled, in-home nursing care 20 hours a day, Smith
said, and when withdrawn in March, “That's when the abuse probably began.”

A 33 year old Lakeland woman was arrested Tuesday after a grand jury
indicted her for the death of her 2 year old son. The arrest comes after
the boy’s stepfather was arrested and charged with murdering the child.
On June 14th, Lakeland police responded to a home on Fredericksburg
Avenue and found the child not breathing; he was later declared dead and
an autopsy listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma. An
investigation found that the stepfather, Marcus Brown, 29, hit the boy
repeatedly with a belt in the upper torso and head area on two separate
occasions on June 13. According to the medical examiner, the injuries
sustained as a result of this abuse caused the child’s death. The
medical examiners report listed approximately 28 injuries to the boy’s
head, face, and upper back area. Tuesday, the boy’s mother, Ina
Marcia Ashe was charged with aggravated manslaughter on a child and two
counts of aggravated child neglect for failing to make a reasonable
effort to protect the child from abuse, neglect, or exploitation by
another person. Ashe was taken to the Polk County jail where she
remains with no bond.

Two-year-old Deondray Ashe was having trouble using the potty.
The Lakeland boy, known to his family as Dooley, was born about three
months premature. A variety of medical problems kept him in a hospital
and a health-care facility for most of his young life.Potty
training at home was proving to be tough. Sometimes he would play with
the roll of toilet paper and touch the water in the bowl.His
mother and stepfather told Lakeland police detectives that the price he
paid for such behavior was sitting for hours on the toilet and enduring
beatings with a belt, according to recently released transcripts and
investigative reports.The boy was found dead the afternoon of
June 14 when emergency medical workers were dispatched to the family's
home on Fredricksburg Avenue.An autopsy later determined the boy
died of blunt force trauma; there were 28 bruises and abrasions to his
upper back, face and head.The State Attorney's Office is seeking
the death penalty against the boy's stepfather, Marcus Brown.A
grand jury indicted the 29-year-old man June 29 on charges of
first-degree murder, aggravated child neglect and two counts of
aggravated child abuse.A grand jury indicted Deondray's mother,
Ina Brown, 33, on July 6 on two counts of aggravated child neglect as
well as aggravated manslaughter by failing to protect her son.
Both remain in the Polk County Jail where they are being held without bail.
Deondray was born Dec. 10, 2007, and weighed 1 pound 15 ounces, according to
records from the Florida Department of Children and Families.He
spent about four months at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa and
then he lived at Sabal Palms Health Center in Largo for about 15
months.He was sent home to Lakeland on Oct. 31, 2009, and
received in-home nursing care until earlier this year when his Medicaid
was canceled.A preliminary review of Deondray's case by DCF shows
his parents were asked to provide income verification but failed to do so."As
a result, his Medicaid and nursing care ended in February 2010," the
report states. "This appeared to be an error as, based on the child's
level of care, there should have been an immediate conversion without an
income requirement from the parents."Weeks later, on March 26,
Deondray was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center for being
"lethargic, crying, stumbling, loss of motor control and crossed eyes."
He was found to have "two healing rib fractures on the right side of the body,
and past cranial bleeding."A physician also diagnosed Deondray with "growth retardation, evidence of
cerebral palsy, severe developmental delays, acute sinus infection,
pneumonia, sagging skin".An investigation into possible child abuse was conducted.The
Browns told investigators that an in-home nurse reported that Deondray
fell from his crib into a wastebasket in early December 2009, but he
didn't appear to be injured.The DCF report also states that Ina
Brown reported Deondray fell "between the headboard and mattress of a
bed on the night of March 24, 2010, but according to the mother, this
did not appear to result in severe trauma."Ina Brown suggested
the rib fractures might have come from the family dog, a Shih-Tzu,
knocking the boy down, according to a transcript of her statement to
detectives.A Lakeland detective noted in a report that "the dog
was very active and it certainly seemed plausible that the dog may have
knocked Deondray down."The Lakeland Police Department closed the case
as "unfounded" for abuse.On May 24, a DCF investigator spoke to the Brown family
and didn't see any evidence of abuse or neglect.The investigator saw Deondray
"playing with his mother and siblings, climbing on the couch, and smiling."
DCF closed the abuse report the next day as not being substantiated.But
the Browns told detectives after Deondray's death that striking the
child was a normal method of discipline, police reports show.
Each, however, denied being responsible for his death and
shifted the blame to the other spouse, according to transcripts.Three
other children in the home, who were ages 10 years, 5 years and 2
months at the time of Deondray's death, were sent to live with
relatives, according to DCF records.The transcripts of Lakeland
detectives talking to the Browns were made public recently in the
criminal case against Marcus Brown. They provide graphic depictions of
Deondray's treatment.Ina Brown, a nurse, told the detectives she
stopped beating Deondray less than a month before his death because she
bruised his arm.She said her husband continued to hit him, according to the report.
"My children are scared of him because he is strict."She said her husband
was playing a video game on the night of June 13 and grew upset with Deondray.
The report says she described watching her husband strike Deondray
more than five times with a belt.She said the boy, who had a tracheotomy tube,
was wheezing as he was hit."When I tell you to sit there, you sit there and you don't move and don't try
me, boy," the transcript says she recalled her husband saying.
She said she heard a second, fiercer beating when the boy was playing
with a roll of toilet paper.She said that beating sounded much worse than
the first one because her husband was frustrated.Ina Brown said in the report
that her husband told her Deondray was "becoming a nuisance."
She took her son off the toilet, according to the report, and led him,
stumbling, back to his room to go to bed.The
report says she didn't check on him until about 1 p.m. the next day
because she said she was scared to see the extent of the bruising.
The boy's tracheotomy tube at that point was pulled out and
she thought he was having respiratory problems, she said.The
report says she called Marcus Brown first because she was looking for a
device for the tracheotomy tube to try to revive her son, and she then
called 911.Detectives asked Marcus Brown why he wasn't home when
emergency workers arrived at the home. He said he had gone to the
emergency room earlier in the day for chest pains.
Detectives showed him pictures of the boy's injuries.
"God as my witness, I never ever struck that child like that," he said.
"I loved him like he was my own."To discipline Deondray,
Marcus Brown told detectives that he would "pop" the boy's hand with "a little ruler or a belt."Marcus
Brown insisted to the detectives that Ina Brown also hit him that
night, according to the report, but he only heard the strikes and didn't
see what object she used.The report includes him saying Ina
Brown lacked a motherly bond with Deondray, and she was annoyed that the
boy resembled his father, with whom she had a previous relationship.
Ina Brown told detectives that she prayed for help to not focus on
Deondray's medical problems or his resemblance to his father."Let's
just say I started being more of a mother to him because originally I
wasn't 'cause we didn't have that attachment," she said.
She told detectives she thinks Deondray is in heaven.
Detectives asked her what she would tell her son if he is looking down at her."I
would tell him that mommy loves him, and I may not have been the
perfect mother all the time and if I could turn back the hands of time
there's things that I would've done differently," she said, according to
the transcript.The criminal cases against the Browns continue, and no trial dates have been scheduled.

Woman Gets 10 Years In Son's Fatal Beating

6:25 pm EDT April 22, 2011

LAKELAND, Fla. -- A Central Florida woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for failing to protect her toddler son from a fatal beating.

As part of a deal with Polk County prosecutors, 34-year-old Ina Brown pleaded no contest Friday to aggravated manslaughter of a child and aggravated neglect of a child. She also agreed to testify against her husband, Marcus Brown.

The stepfather has been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and neglect. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Authorities say Marcus Brown repeatedly beat 2-year-old Deondray Ashe with a belt during potty training. Rescue workers responded to the Lakeland home in June 2010 and found the boy dead.

Ina Brown acknowledged that she had hit the boy in the past but not the day he died.

These savages used the potty training as an excuse. Beating a baby is not the way to teach him anything. It is a way to vent your rage and hate.

She beat this baby also, not on the day he died so she gets off with a light sentence. They should not have accepted a no contest from her. She should have pleaded guilty or they should have tried her. Any jury would have brought back the guilty verdict she was too gutless to plea to.

10 years is a joke.

The prosecutor is a joke.

This case is not adjudicated. The step father has not yet gone to trial.

twinkletoes wrote:This case is not adjudicated. The step father has not yet gone to trial.

---StOpMan procedures for the NewsRoom indicate that all cases with more than one defendant are moved to the Adjudicated section upon conviction of the first of those defendants. I understand that the case is not "completely" adjudicated per se but this helps move the topics along the expected progression without languishing for extended periods of time in the original room.

TomTerrific0420 wrote:

twinkletoes wrote:This case is not adjudicated. The step father has not yet gone to trial.

---StOpMan procedures for the NewsRoom indicate that all cases with more than one defendant are moved to the Adjudicated section upon conviction of the first of those defendants. I understand that the case is not "completely" adjudicated per se but this helps move the topics along the expected progression without languishing for extended periods of time in the original room.

Thanks Mr T.

I will keep an eye out for his trial. Seems these murdered babies all "fall".

This POS needs to spend the rest of his days in a cell. IMO.