Braylon Alexander
April 6, 2006 - July 1, 2008
Dolis Yvonne Alexander says that her
boyfriend did not
hurt her son:
"My son is very fragile he has
severe medical
problems and past medical problems.
He is fragile to anything,"
Stating that her son was a miracle
baby, she said
that she was not going to allow someone her son loved to go go jail for
something he didn't do:
"My son has a bruise on his
forehead and a
scrap on his nose and his lip like he fell, you c
an see it. "I'm going to stick
beside my boyfriend
and I'm Braylon's mother and there is no
way. I know he didn't do it."
Lekedrin Smith had been dating Dolis
Alexander for
about a year when after leaving him to baby-sit while she went to work
one day, June 30, 2008. According to Lekedrin, Braylon took a fall
outside:
"It was a tragic accident. By
the time I got
off the phone is when I heard Braylon outside crying,
I rushed outside and see him on
the front
porch and I see him face down and he was trying to
get up. I asked him what happened
he said
Kilo, I fell. It was all in one breathe in one motion
like he was out of breath he
couldn't breathe.
Once I picked him up I consoled him. I thought
he was going to stand up, but he
just collapsed
there in front of me."
Braylon's mother Yvonne and Lekedrin
took him to
the North Metro Emergency room at about 7:30 pm on June 30, 2008 with
severe
head injuries. Captain Charles Jenkins of the Jacksonville Police
Department
says they were called by hospital staff:
"The Police Department got a
call from North
Metro Hospital on a call on suspected child abuse
before he was taken to Arkansas
Children's
Hospital."
Lekedrin told police that Braylon had
fallen twice
that morning and that he had not seen the first fall. He said that
after
the first fall, he had picked Braylon up and tried to get him to stand
and that he had fallen again. Lekedrin said that Braylon fell backward
the second time and then his body went limp. Lekedrin s ays that he
picked
Braylon up and tried to resuscitate him
by shaking
him. During this time, Braylon was going in and out of consciousness
and
even vomited on Lekedrin at one point. Police were suspicious of this
statement
since in his first statement, Lekedrin had said that he had given
Braylon
CPR and in his second satement, he did not mention it.
Yvonne was still insistent that her
boyfriend would
never do anything to hurt her son, saying that he loved him and that
her
son was so fragile that anything could hurt him:
 
"If this step was out and my
son was running
he would fall, and if he fell he had a hard impact on this
concrete. When the police came by,
this step
was broken"
Braylon died July 1, 2008 due to
massive head trauma
and Yvonne and her boyfriend, Lekedrin were still saying it was an
accident.
Police do not buy their version of what happened:
"The trauma caused to this
child could not
have been caused by an accidental fall"
said April Kiser.
According to police, Braylon had
visible injuries
that included redness on his butt that was in the shape of a hand print
as well as multiple bruises on his forehead. Braylon also had a knot on
the back of his head.
On July 1, the Jacksonville Police
received a social
work assessment from the hospital. A doctor said that Braylon's
injuries
had included "a closed head injury with subdural hematomas of the
bilateral
frontal
lobes and in the and in the
interhemispheric
fissure, global cerebral edema with loss of gray white differentiation
and effacement of the ventricles, skull fracture of the parietal and
occipital
area that is likely continuous with the overlying soft tissue swelling,
retinal hemorrhages in both eyes and the skin was noted to have
buttocks
bruising with abrasions on the low back/upper buttocks as well as small
round bruises on the scapula, groin and abdomen".
Also in his statement the doctor said
that the injuries
could have been inflicted between 5am and 8:30am on the day that
Lekedrin
was taking care of him. He also determined that the injuries that
Braylon
had sustained would not be consistent with a fall from a standing
position
or the height of a step, if there had been more than one fall, which is
what was claimed.
On July 2, 2008 A warrant was issued
for the arrest
of Lekedrin Smith with the charge being capital murder. Reporter
Katherina
Yancy spoke with Lekedrin over the phone before he turned himself in:
"Are you going to turn yourself
in?"
Katherina Yancy
"Yes, ma'am I'm turning myself
in today. I
didn'tdo anything wrong, I loved him"
Lekedrin Smith
Karen Farst said that physical abuse
is common in
homes where there is domestic abuse and parents may not think before
acting
when their children become difficult to handle:
"There's probably about a
million kids a year
found to be substantiated as physically or sexually
abused or neglected"
"You need to have some defense
mechanisms planned
out ahead of time and be able to walk
away until you calm down. "nd if
you feel
you're still angry, then you need to have some
people to call and help out
too"
Dr. Karen Farst -
Pediatrician
Lekedrin Smith says there was no
anger involved in
what happened to Braylon:
"It was just a tragic accident.
I didn't do
nothing wrong."
About an hour after turning himself
in, Lekedrin
was on his way to the Pulaski Country Jail, charged with capital murder
in the death of Braylon Alexander. With capital murder, prosecutors are
able to seek the death penalty.
The National Child Abuse And Neglect
data system
says that more than 1,400 children died in the year 2005 as a result of
child abuse or neglect. Some experts disagree saying that the number is
most likely much higher and that due to improper recording of deaths
from
abuse or neglect, the numbers are not as high as they should be.
In August of 2011, Braylon's
grandmother contacted me and said:
"He
was my first born grand-son. My sons only boy child. Braylon has a
siter, she is
5. I love him very much and miss him, thank u so much"
Keron W.
 
Click
here to read statements left on a news page
by
Braylon's mother, to other people posting comments
about
his death.
For information about preventing child
abuse in the
state of Arkansas, 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
   
Share
this page
with your family and friends!
|
