A 41-year-old California man is facing charges of murder, torture, and child abuse after allegedly beating a 6-year-old boy to death for wetting his pants at a park, according to authorities.
Ernest Lamar Love, 41, of Placentia, California, allegedly killed Chance Crawford, the six-year-old boy whom he was babysitting, after an accident at the park as per a LAW & CRIME report.
Prosecutors say Love used a “large piece of raw lumber” to fatally beat the boy, eventually leading to his death. Love was entrusted with caring for Chance while the boy’s mother worked an overnight shift as a nurse’s assistant at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
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She dropped off her son at Love’s barbershop around 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 29, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Hours later, Love brought the severely injured child to Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). “Doctors at CHOC discovered much of Chance’s flesh was missing from his buttocks, leaving raw, gaping wounds, along with subdural hematoma, extreme brain swelling, and other injuries consistent with violent shaking,” as said by prosecutors in a statement.
The boy remained in critical condition at the hospital until his death on Tuesday.
Video surveillance captured Love returning to his barbershop with a reluctant Chance and carrying a large piece of wood, authorities said.
Love allegedly used the wood to beat the boy, then poured hydrogen peroxide on the boy’s open wounds before forcing him to perform physical exercises, including push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks.
After Chance collapsed, Love drove him to the hospital instead of calling 911, officials said.
Love is being held without bail at the Orange County Jail but has pleaded not guilty to the charges placed against him. Should he be convicted, he will face 32 years to life in prison.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer vowed to seek justice for the young boy, insisting that his life held meaning and this incident was not supposed to happen at the hands of a person tasked to look after him.
“While his new classmates were celebrating the end of the first week of first grade, Chance’s seat in his classroom was empty as he fought for his life in a hospital bed,” Spitzer said in a statement. “Words do not exist to describe the absolute terror this little boy was forced to endure — all at the hands of someone who was supposed to be protecting him, not torturing him to death.”
Friends and family have described Chance as a “sweet little boy with a beautiful smile” who loved watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sesame Street. A GoFundMe page set up to help the family remembers him as a talented artist with a bright future.
“He was a gifted child and had so much life to live,” the fundraiser reads. “We’re devastated by the loss of our beautiful, sweet, kind, bright and shining star. This pain is horrible and our family will never recover from the loss.”
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As the legal process continues, the community is left grappling with the devastating loss of a young life taken far too soon, and are keenly eyeing the outcome of the incident, believing the six-year-old deserves justice.
