Godmother Charged in 3-Year-Old's Death

Police say Nadera Batson and her boyfriend abused Jaquinn Brewton on a daily basis, sometimes using a blowtorch

The woman who allegedly told police her godson was unconscious because he fell down the stairs is now charged, along with her boyfriend in his death. 

Police say it wasn't a fall that killed three-year-old Jaquinn Brewton, but the daily, systematic abuse that included:

"Numerous assaults to the body, by fists, through kicks and also some type of unidentified object," according to Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark. "Also, some numerous burns to his legs, feet and buttocks from a blowtorch (pictured to the right) that the family had."

Jaquinn was being abused by Nadera Batson, 22, and her boyfriend, Marcus King, 23, since March, Clark said. That's when Jaquinn's mother put him in Batson's care.

"The little boy took all the pain that he could, and he couldn't take it any more and he succumbed to his injuries," Clark said.

The 911 call came in that day -- June 29 -- saying a little boy had fallen out a window.

When paramedics got to the West Philly home at Chestnut and 47th Street, Brewton was unconscious and suffering from internal injuries.

Batson said the little boy she loved so much had fallen, not out of a window, but down some stairs.

"I'm devastated that it's not my child, first of all, and it happened in my care. I'm really feeling real bad about this situation," Batson told NBC Philadelphia the next day after she was questioned by police.

The Medical Examiner said Jaquinn's injuries were not consistent with a fall and ruled the death a homicide. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the body, specifically the spleen, according to Capt. Clark.

"It's one of the saddest cases I've seen," Clark said.

King and Baston are both charged with murder.

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