A mother in the US tortured her young son by sitting on his chest and "beating him non stop for 40 minutes" while his father did nothing to stop it.
Kimberly Rachel Blakley, 37, and Cory Albert Blakley, 38, were the adoptive parents of Cyrus Blakley. The couple are accused of murder, torture, and child abuse following the nine-year-old's death in California in February.
Both parents were behind the boy's death, prosecutors argue, and the pain he endured, according to a filed court transcript of a three-day preliminary hearing in April in which evidence and testimony was presented.
Deputy District Attorney Andrew Braden, a prosecutor in the murder case , told the judge the boy’s mother, who weighed 210 pounds, tormented her son by sitting on him, depriving him of oxygen and "continually beating" him.
“She sat on a child’s chest... on a cushion and repeatedly beat him for approximately 40 minutes, beat him until he no longer made a sound,” Braden said in court.
Emergency services responded to a medical aid call at the family's home at around 6pm on February 2. Cyrus was found unresponsive. He died three days later in hospital . Prosecutors allege the boy became comatose as a result of the parents' abuse. Cyrus suffered brain injury and paralysis , according to the criminal complaint.
The Blakleys had seven children - two biological and five adopted - who all live together in a home near Sunrise Boulevard. During the murder investigation , several Ring-brand cameras were found to be installed in most of the rooms of the home, including the four bedrooms, the garage, a laundry room and the living room camera.
Cory Blakley deleted the video captured in the living room camera, prosecutors alleged, so they couldn't see all that unfolded in the living room on the day Cyrus died but they could hear it.
Cyrus allegedly told his classmates and school staff that his dog had died and he was therefore forced to take the pets outside, causing the mother to "exact revenge " on the boy.
The mother could be heard in the footage saying over and over that Child Protective Services were going to take the children away because Cyrus didn’t care about the family, the prosecutor told the judge .
Braden said the videos depict the mother sitting on the boy, his legs on the ground, beating him as he attempts to free himself. He told the judge: "There are moments in the video where (Cyrus) begs for her to stop, telling her that he cannot breathe . She continues and does not stop and even threatens to shove something in his mouth.”
Brad Whatcott, an attorney from the Public Defender’s Office representing Kimberly Blakley, argued in the April hearing that Kimberly "was trying to discipline" the boy and that she was not seeking revenge.
“Now, I do agree that the discipline, the spanking, the sitting on (Cyrus), that was misguided, irrational, unjustifiable disciplining of a child ,” Whatcott argued, according to court documents. “But I don’t believe that amounts to an expectation that someone’s going to die from those actions.”
The defense attorney told the judge that no evidence showed the mother “intended to cause any sort of cruel or extreme pain" and said her demeanour completely changed when she clocked Cyrus was no longer responsive.
The Blakleys have been held without bail at Placer County jail since their arrest on February 7. Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Ow, who also is prosecuting the case against the Blakleys, argued in court that Cyrus’ father didn't take part in the boy's beating but was there for all of - or the majority of - the beating.
“If he didn’t see it all, he heard it, just like we could see in all the videos from various positions in the house ,” Ow told the judge. “I don’t know what’s worse, watching it or hearing it. You can hear the child gasping for air. You can hear the force of the strikes being inflicted on him.”
The prosecutor said the audio also documented the number of times Cyrus was hit as the boy apologized to his mom. Ow said in court: "You can hear (the) mother taunting him, and you can watch dad as he putters around in the kitchen drinking his soda , talking to his kids about turning off and on the lights."
Cory was laughing at videos that his wife was apparently watching as she allegedly sat on the boy on the living room couch, she argued. Ow told the judge that Cory didn't perform his legal duty as a parent and showed deliberate disregard for his son's life. He even closed a window near the couch as the boy shouted for help.
This could've caught a neighbor's attention, who could have possibly helped the child or called the police. Barry Zimmerman, a defense attorney hired to represent Cory Blakley, argued that Cory didn't take part in the child's beating and that the dad's failure to act could not be ascribed to the cause of the boy's death.
“His failure to call 911 , his failure even if he were to have said ‘Stop,’ would she have stopped?” Zimmerman argued in court. “She was out of control.” The boy died "at the hands of Kimberly," the defense attorney told the judge.
Zimmerman told the judge: “There’s no evidence that my client encouraged her to hold (Cyrus) down in that fashion or intended for him to die.”
The Blakleys have been ordered to stand trial on the murder, torture and child abuse charges , along with felony charges of dissuading witnesses. The prosecutors allege the parents told the children not to speak truthfully to investigators . The Blakleys also face misdemeanour charges of child endangerment.
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Ow told the judge “there’s no doubt” Cyrus’ siblings will be negatively and adversely affected by watching “their brother be killed by their mother in front of their own eyes.”
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