Babysitter beats 6-year-old to death days after he starts 1st grade, CA officials say
A 6-year-old died after he was beaten with a piece of lumber, and now his babysitter has been charged, California prosecutors say.
Prosecutors charged Ernest Lamar Love, 41, with multiple felonies, including murder, torture and child abuse causing death, in the death of Chance Crawford, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a Sept. 4 news release.
“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,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the release.
“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.”
After Chance finished his third day of first grade, his mother dropped him off with Love at his Placentia barbershop at about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29, prosecutors said.
Love was to care for Chance while his mother worked her night shift as a nurse’s assistant at a hospital in Orange County, prosecutors said.
About four hours later, video surveillance shows “Love walking into his barbershop with a large piece of raw lumber with a reluctant Chance following behind him,” prosecutors said.
Love is accused of beating Chance with the lumber after he peed his pants at a nearby park, according to prosecutors.
After the beating, Love is accused of pouring hydrogen peroxide on Chance’s wounds, prosecutors said.
He then forced the boy to do physical exercise, including push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks, according to prosecutors.
Chance collapsed, and Love drove him to an Orange County hospital, prosecutors said.
He was “unconscious and struggling to breathe,” prosecutors said.
Chance suffered critical injuries, including “raw gaping wounds,” and “subdural hematoma, extreme brain swelling, and other injuries consistent with violent shaking,” according to prosecutors.
Chance died four days after arriving at the hospital, prosecutors said.
“Seeing my son like that and in the condition he was in, in critical condition from the time he was brought in, it’s just devastating,” Chance’s father, Vance Crawford, told KTLA. “He didn’t even die peacefully. He died a tragic death, and it’s not fair.”
Chance’s cousin, Aisha Herrell, told KABC that Chance “was growing up into a big, beautiful, smart little boy.”
“This is killing us slowly because no child deserves to get treated like this,” Herrell said.
A GoFundMe describes Chance as having “a smile that would light up an entire room.”
“If you knew him, you would have loved him like his entire community did,” the GoFundMe says.
Love was booked into jail on Aug. 31, online jail records show. Love, who is being held without bail, pleaded not guilty, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published September 5, 2024 at 11:45 AM with the headline "Babysitter beats 6-year-old to death days after he starts 1st grade, CA officials say."
