Lain

Trial begins for couple accused in godson's death

By Ramon Coronado -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 1:55 pm PDT Thursday, August 24, 2006

The godparents of 3-year-old Christopher Thomas staged boxing matches with the boy as "spectator sport" before he died of brain injuries, a prosecutor told a Sacramento Superior Court on Thursday.
The boxing matches and other acts of violence in the Rancho Cordova apartment were for the "amusement" of the godparents, and "the games ceased" July 19, 2004, the day the boy died of bleeding to the brain, Deputy District Attorney Robin Shakely said.

In opening statements to the trial of Earl Joseph Christopher and his wife, Renecha Marina Gulley, Shakely said Thomas was with the couple for nine days before he was taken to the hospital with multiple injuries, including old bruising and a burn from a flat iron, Shakely said.

Christopher, 25, and Gulley, 24, are each charged with child homicide and murder. Each count carries a 25-years-to-life term in prison.

Dwight M. Samuel, Gulley's lawyer, told jurors that his client's confession to police interrogators "was a lie."

"She lied to save her husband," Samuel said of Gulley, who will testify in the three-week trial. "An expert will testify why people confess to things they didn't do."

The dead boy's brother and boxing opponent, who was 5 at the time of the death, told police he saw Christopher punch the 3-year-old "hard in the stomach," Samuel said.

Christopher's lawyer, Russell Miller Jr., told jurors that his client had a "loving relationship" with his godchild.

The day before the boy was pronounced dead, Christopher made numerous attempts to get medical help, Miller said of the boy, who was first taken to a nearby veterans' hospital but was turned away because it didn't have an emergency room.

Later the couple took the boy back to their apartment and called 911 before he was rushed by ambulance to UC Davis Medical Center, Miller said.

Shakely said Christopher lied to police when he told them that the boy was injured when he fell from his bed and hit his head on a speaker because the wounds were too severe for such a fall.

With the courtroom lights dimmed, Shakely showed jurors a home videotape the couple made five days before the boy’s death.

The tape showed Christopher boxing with his brother, at first jabbing half-heartedly at his opponent, but then increasing with force as his godfather egged him on.

"Put the dog down," Christopher told the boy. "Fight."

"You ain't hitting hard enough. Get him. Get him," the boy was told.

After slugging his older brother in the stomach with a blow that caused him to yell in pain and punching him along the side of the head that made him fall to the ground, the boy was declared the victor.

"Christopher is the winner. Now do your victory dance," the godfather told the boy.

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I heard of babies being tossed in the washing machine but what the hell? This almost reminds me of those Bumfights DVD series in which they pay the bums to beat the living crap out of each other.

Does anyone find this really...really disturbing?

Lexis

I don't quite know what so say. This is quite possibly one of the most horrific things I can think of. Something is seriously wrong with these people.

Californian

This is horrible. This is very disturbing. How could you do that to someone?

-Kelly-

OMG that is wrong

Lain

Parents need to be tested to whether are they worthy of having kids.

TheAngel

That makes me think of Fehrenheit 451 where the fireman's remembering a time when kids didn't kill kids and think's that's funny because there never really was such a time. Great society we have here, folks. People are amazing creatures, to be capable of such hate and pain and anger and destruction, if not from this case then in numerous others.