SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) — A Placentia barber has been charged with murder and torture for allegedly beating a 6-year-old boy to death with a piece of lumber, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Ernest Lamar Love, 41, has been charged with one felony count of murder, one felony count of torture, and one felony count of child abuse causing death, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.
Prosecutors say 6-year-old Chance Crawford had finished his third day of first grade last Thursday and was dropped off at Love’s barbershop around 6:30 p.m. while his mother, a nurse’s assistant, went to work at a hospital. Love was in charge of babysitting Chance.
Surveillance video allegedly shows Love walking into the barbershop with a “large piece of raw lumber with a reluctant Chance following behind him.”
Prosecutors accuse Love of beating the first-grader with the piece of lumber, then pouring hydrogen peroxide on the open wounds before forcing the boy to do push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks until he collapsed. Love allegedly beat the boy after the first-grader wet his pants at a local park, prosecutors said.
Love is accused of carrying Chance – unconscious and struggling to breathe – into the ER at Children’s Hospital of Orange County around 1:30 a.m. Friday.
“Doctors at CHOC discovered that much of Chance’s flesh was missing from his buttocks, leaving raw, gaping wounds, along with subdural hematoma, extreme brain swelling, and other injuries consistent with violent shaking,” the DA’s office said. “The little boy also had healing fracture on his shoulder blade.”
Love faces a maximum sentence of 32 years to life plus five years if convicted on all charges.
“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,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
‘No child deserves to get treated like this’
Like most kids, Chance loved Mickey Mouse. He even had a Mickey Mouse-themed party for his 5th birthday.
“He loved it so much. He has a Mickey Mouse outfit. He was in the Mickey Mouse outfit smiling, always smiling,” Chance’s great-aunt Carmen Hill said. “Always, and we won’t get to see that smile anymore.”
The 6-year-old boy had been in a coma since last Friday after his family says he was brutally beaten by a friend of his mother, someone she apparently met at church.
Chance was declared brain dead on Tuesday and taken off life support.
“That kid was sweet,” Hill said. “What kind of monster are you?”
“This is killing us slowly because no child deserves to get treated like this,” Chance’s cousin Aisha Herrell said.
Herrell said Love took Chance to the hospital and told staff the boy got injured in a fall. She said hospital staff notified police.
“The more and more that I explain what happened, the more angry I feel,” Chance’s father Vance Crawford said.
“Just like why? Why would this happen to him? He didn’t get to live the rest of life,” Crawford said. “He’s 6 years old. I wanted to see my son graduate.”
His family now demands justice.
“He lived a happy life. He was great. He was a great kid,” Crawford said. “I love my son. I miss him so much. He didn’t deserve that.”
“He was growing up into a big, beautiful, smart little boy,” Herrell said. “We just hate that he’s no longer with us.”
The family held a vigil Wednesday evening at a park where Chance had once celebrated a birthday. His cousin Rashedia Diaz described him as sweet and a bundle of joy.
Amid the tears, there was anger after details emerged of how Chance died.
“It hit me like a ball of fire,” the boy’s father said. “It’s been tragic.”
Chance’s family hopes no other child will experience what allegedly happened to the 6-year-old. They’re urging parents to always be aware as to who watches their children.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with Chance’s funeral and memorial.
