Brandon Thomas Williams
July 12, 2001 - March 22, 2007
Diane Marsh and Melvin Williams married and had a child,
they named him Brandon. Brandon was born with Autism and took medication
for that. Diane had two children from a previous marriage. In March of
2005, Diane called police to report that her husband had hit her son and
tried to choke him, leaving marks on his neck. Diane filed for divorce
from Melvin asking for full custody of Brandon due to her
husbands abusive past with her teenage son.
Diane Marsh had been visited by CPS even before
this incident and
they visited her several times after that. In August
of 2006, CPS was
called, by Diane, because one of her teenage sons
had grabbed and
injured Brandon. At that time, her two teenage
sons were removed
from her home, however, they left Brandon with
her.
Shortly after that incident, in either late September
or early October,
the Amphi officials contacted CPS to make them
aware that Brandon,
who was as special needs child at Helen Keeling
Emementary school,
had missed eight days in a row, of school. Brandon's
attendance at
school had never been consistant and he had transferred
more than
once. Brandon had ben to Marion Donaldson and Lulu
Walker schools
before he started at Helen Keeling. When Brandon
didn't return to
school and his records had not been requested for
transfer, school
officials called CPS:
"We didn't know where he was"
Todd Jaeger the district's attorney and associate
superintendent
On March 22, 2007, Brandon Thomas Williams complained
of having
symtoms related to the flu. His mother, Diane L.
Marsh, decided to
treat his symptoms with nighttime Tylenol tablets.
At around 7pm,
Diane gave Brandon 12 of the Tylenol PM tablets.
Several hours later
when she returned to his room and found him unresponsive,
she called the ambulance. At 11:40pm the ambulance arrived and medics found
that Brandon's body temperature had dropped below 80. The medics took Brandon
to the Northwest Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
The medics who took Brandon to the hospital had
noticed that there were marks on his wrists and ankles which looked to
be the same kind of marks a person would get from rope burns. On the bottoms
of his feet and on his toes they saw blisters, cracks and bleeding. Sheriff's
homicide detectives were notified since the medics
suspected child
abuse.
Diane admitted that in order to keep Brandon calm,
she would give
him four to five sleep aid pills, twice a day.
Among the ways she used
to control him, she would tie him up and at times
would put his feet in scalding hot water or hit him with a wire hanger
when he would do
anything she considered to be, acting out.
Brandon's Biological father, Melvin
Williams told officials that his son
was Autistic and that he didn't like or approve
of the way his mother
had controlled him.
"I could've taken him in, all she had to do
was call and say she needed help and I would've done it. He was hyper he
had tantrums, but he was just 5. Jesus Christ, she didn't need to do that."
Melvin said that Brandon was a
very active child, always running
around, talking a lot and that he
was supposed to be in school, in
kindergarten. Brandon loved to
watch the Disney Channel and he |
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would watch anything that was on though his favorite
was "Lilo & Stitch". Melvin said that Brandon loved to go to the park,
he loved to
swim and he loved playing on the swings.
Melvin had last seen Brandon in September for an
overnight visit. His
visits, up to that point, had been every other
weekend, however, since that last visit, he had not been able to get in
touch with Diane. During
the last visit, there had been no signs that Brandon
had been abused.
"I didn't think she would ever do this. Brandon
didn't
deserve it, no one does. He was a wonderful
little boy
who never had a chance to grow up."
Records show that CPS tried to contact Diane in
October of 2006
and were not able to find her. A CPS worker contact
the police on
October 16th and asked for an officer to go to
the home with her,
there was no answer when they knocked on the door.
The next day,
they returned to the house and as the CPS worker
tried to call police
to meet her at the home, she saw Diane driving
away.
Over the next few months, CPS would make several
attempts to make contact with Diane, including visting her bank, they would
all prove unsuccessful:
"In the fall of 2006, over the course of several
months,
there were repeated attempts to locate Mrs.
Marsh and
Brandon. These included numerous attempts
to locate
them at their home. It included several contacts
in his
school to find out if his records had been
transferred."
Liz Barker CPS worker
On March 15, a week before Brandon died, Diane's
father filed a
missing persons report on her. Her father said
that the last time he
had contact with Diane was in October when she
had called him to
ask for money and claiming that Witchcraft was
being performed in
her house.
A friend, Jeff Pankow, told police that when he
last saw Diane she
was cowering and didn't seem to be able to answer
questions on her
own. Jeff said that another woman was answering
questions for her.
That woman turned out to be a homeless woman who
had been
living with Diane, her name was Flower Tompson.
Jeff also said that
Thompson seemed to control Diane and that he had
talked to Flower
and their conversations were about Witchcraft,
seances and strange
ceremonies practiced in the house.
Deputy Lillian George went to Dianes house and learned
that it had caught on fire and workers were there doing the remodeling.
The workers told her that she could find Diane at a North Side appartment.
The officer also spoke to a neighbor who said that it seemed odd to him
that Brandon had not been going to school.
At the apartment, the officer knocked several times
and when the
door finally opened, it was Flower who answered.
Brandon was just
inside the apartment:
"His feet and legs were heavily bandaged,"
When she asked what happened to Brandon, Flower
said that he had
fallen into the gravel and was cut by some cactus
plants. Lillian said she would write it in her report, and she did. Lillian
George said in her report that during the interview at Diane's house, Flower
Tompson
kept trying to answer for her and when she asked
to speak to Diane
alone, she asked if she was being held against
her will and was told no. Lillian filed her report:
"Ms. Marsh appeared to be well rested, well
fed
and not in any type of duress,"
The report would not make it to CPS in time to save
Brandon's life.
Lillian George was not aware of the involvement
of CPS in the life of
Diane and Brandon so the report was not transcribed
until the day
after Brandon died:
"She didn't see any signs of exigent circumstances,"
Dawn Barkman Pima County Sheriffe's Department
Dawn Barkman said that procedure was followed in
this case since it
was a missing persons case. Lillian George had
done the missing
persons investgation and was in the process of
sending her report to
CPS. Although she had seen Brandon with bandaged
feet, she had no
reason not to believe the explanation she was given
when she asked
what had happened to him. The report shows no indication
that Jillian had interviewed Brandon at all.
The next visit that would be made by police would
be on March 22
when they were called to the apartment because
Brandon was not
breathing.
Flower Tompson who was 27 and Mark Lee Moss who
was 47, were
the two homeless people who lived with Diane. Both
of these people
said they KNEW what was going on with Brandon and
didn't call the
police because they didn't want to be kicked out
onto the street.
Flower told police that she had, at times, helped
Diane to tie Brandon
up to control him. She also said that she had seen
Diane whip him.
Mark Lee Moss had previously been convicted of
sex crimes in the
state of California. Flower went to the hospital
and Mark stayed at the
apartment. When questioned, he was asked about
injuries that had
been seen in Brandon's anal area. Mark said he
didn't know anything
about it and he would never do anything like that.
Chief Rick Kastigar says that something that is
extremely troubling in
this case is that the other adults did not try
to stop the abuse:
"One not only knew what was going on, but
participated
in the abuse by her own admission, and another
individual was complicit in this and didn't report it to anyone,"
The investigators in this case say that it's very
disturbing and the case
hits close to home:
"Especially when you're a dad or a mom. It
was probably
very, very painful for this young boy. It
saddens all of us."
Diane Marsh and Flower Tompson were charged with
first degree
murder as well as four counts of child abuse. Mark
Moss was arrested
and charged with failing to report child abuse.
The jury found Diane Marsh guilty of four counts
of child abuse and
one count of negligent homicide for Brandon's death.
They could not
agree on who had actually been the one to kill
Brandon, but, they
still held her accountable for his suffering:
"I think as a mother you relate to the child
and the only
thing a little boy wants is to be happy and
when your
mom can't even keep you out of burning water,
you feel for him,"
Melissa Reichard Juror
A member of Diane's church, Glenda Jackson, showed
up to court in
a wheelchair to show Diane support during her sentencing
she made
the following comments:
"She's a good woman. She got involved with
the wrong
people. She needs therapy, not prison."
Diane Marsh was sentenced to a VERY short
ten years in prison for
all that she allowed her son to go through. How
sickening is it that a person can torture their child, cause him to die
and then spend ONLY
ten years in prison for it?
"You may be a good person to fellow church
members,
but you were a horrible person to Brandon.
You are
responsible for his homicide. His blood is
on your hands,"
Judge Hector Campoy - Pima County Superior
Court.
Flower Tompson made a deal with prosecutors and
she will also be
spending only ten years in prison. She will have
to serve at LEAST
85% of her time. Mark Moss was never charged for
his failure to help Brandon by reporting what he saw.
Brandon's grandmother, Mae West, made a poster of
pictures of him
and brought it to court with her. Melvin and Mae
were both upset
that the people who killed Brandon didn't get life
in prison:
"God knows who did it. They still got their
day set with the
Lord. God will have a talk with them. God
is looking down
on them right now. They're gonna suffer.
Lord ain't let you
do something like that"
Melvin said that Diane called him to apologize for
what she had done:
"She said 'I'm sorry. She said she couldn't
give
me the details"
Melvin Williams had filed two lawsuits over the
death of his son. For
$3 million dollars, he filed against Pima County,
the Sheriff and one
deputy, for wrongful death and for $4 million dollars
he filed against
Child Protective Services, three CPS emplyees and
the state.
Melvin's claim was filed in August claiming that
at least three CPS
employes had failed to help Brandon by locating
him and taking
temporary custody of him. The claim also says that
Deputy Lillian R.
George failed to contact CPS on March 15 to report
the condition of
Brandon and failed to stay with him until CPS could
arrive and assess
the situation. According to Melvin, Sheriff Clarence
Dupnik and the
county failed to provide adequate training for
these kinds of situations. A response was needed within 60 to either deny
the claims
or settle the claim. If no response was made, the
lawsuit would
proceed.
For information about preventing child abuse in the
state of Arizona, click the links below. If they can't help you, ask for
someone who can. NEVER give up looking for help for an abused child!
Call this number to report
child abuse ANY WHERE in the United States!
1-800-4-A-Child
1-800-422-4453
  
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