Mother, girlfriend arrested in Fort Worth boy’s murder; victim got ‘whooping’ for lying
The mother of a 4-year-old boy and her girlfriend beat the child to death in Fort Worth in March, police alleged Friday as they arrested the women on suspicion of capital murder of a person under 10.
Lying and taking too long to dry off after a shower were the perceived transgressions that led to Stetson Blackburn’s abuse and death, caused in part by blows to his head with a belt, the suspects said in separate interviews with detectives that are described in arrest warrant affidavits.
Stetson’s mother, Shannon Gray, 23, was arrested by Tennessee authorities. Reyna Sanchez, 24, was arrested by Fort Worth police. The cause and manner of death ruling from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office came about three weeks ago.
Stetson died of blunt-force trauma. He suffered cardiac arrest, acute respiratory failure, a subdural hematoma and a traumatic brain injury, a physician told police.
The boy was declared brain dead on March 21, two days after he arrived at Cook Children’s Medical Center.
The night before Stetson stopped breathing inside the family’s mobile home in the 3300 block of Bonaventure Boulevard South, Gray gave her son an “ass-whooping” because he was lying, a detective wrote that Gray said in an interview.
“Shannon said she overdid it,” Detective Adam Perry of the Fort Worth police Crimes Against Children Unit wrote in an affidavit in support of the arrest warrants in the case.
Gray said she spanked Stetson with a belt 35-40 times and hit him in the head with a belt about 20 times the day before he was taken to Cook Children’s, according to the affidavit.
Feeling bad, Gray apologized to the boy and put him in a cold shower.
Sanchez made Stetson raise his hands above his head while he was in the shower and kicked him in the stomach two or three times because he was too slow in drying off, Gray told police.
Separately, Sanchez said she routinely hit Stetson with a shoe or whatever object was near and had kicked him during the shower drying dispute, according to the affidavit.
Sanchez said she kicked the boy three times as hard as she could and hurt her big toe.
Sanchez said that on March 19, while Gray was working, she put Stetson and his 3-year-old brother down for a nap, and two minutes later, Stetson gasped for air. Sanchez said Stetson had vomit, food and blood coming from his nose and mouth. She put him in the shower, and when he became unresponsive, she performed CPR.
Sanchez called Gray to come to the home, and when she arrived, Gray called 911.
Several of Stetson’s organs were donated, police said.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 6:09 PM.
