South Carolina Mom Beats 6-Year-Old Son Over Forgotten Mother’s Day Card ‘Because She Could’
A South Carolina woman was charged with physically assaulting her young child after the boy innocently gifted his grandmother with a handmade Mother’s Day card, but failed to do the same for her.
Shontrell Murphy, of Spartanburg, was arrested on child cruelty charges on Thursday, May 11, the New York Daily News reports, after the 30-year-old owned up to beating her son, 6, as punishment for not having a Mother’s Day card to give her prior to the holiday weekend.
According to Murphy’s mother, Shontrell became enraged once she noticed the sweet, handmade gesture from her son inside of their Amos Street home and discovered that the boy, whose name is being protected for legal reasons, had composed the greeting card for someone other than Murphy.
“Murphy [then] started ripping up the card,” the Daily News writes, “then hit her son several times [across] the head.”
The Mother Day’s card recipient confirmed to Spartanburg police that her daughter “had slapped [the boy] multiple times in the front, side and back of [his] head,” the Daily News reported.
Mom 'beat up her six-year-old son because he made his grandmother a Mother's Day card and not her' https://t.co/GHkAvOO9IF
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) May 13, 2017
When cops walked into the home, they were purportedly greeted by Murphy’s mother comforting her two grandchildren; a young girl of an unreported age, and the 6-year-old boy, the Mother Day’s card composer, as Shontrelle’s son loudly wept in his grandmother’s arms.
During the initial police interrogation at Murphy’s home, the mad mom allegedly responded that she beat her boy “because [she] could,” and due to his supposed behavior issues.
Murphy’s mother neither confirmed or denied the existence of any such emotional disorder with the boy, but the child and his sister girl did relay to law enforcement officers that their mom beat them on a regular basis.
“The children reportedly told the police that their mother hits them frequently and violently, and that they are afraid of her,” KVVU-TV adds.
Spartanburg police officers also located the torn pieces of the Mother Day’s card that Murphy’s son created, as specified by both Shontrelle and her mother, the card’s recipient, on the floor of the home.
The boy was ultimately treated for non-life threatening injuries at a nearby hospital and released shortly thereafter. Murphy, meanwhile, was transported to the Spartanburg County Detention Center to spend the start of her Mother’s Day weekend behind bars, and still, without a card.
In semi-related news, another woman in South Carolina was recently accused of having a direct hand in the death of her 1-year-old baby boy, according to the Post and Courier.
Parents charged in infant death just days before Mother's Day https://t.co/XpqctyXDAg #chsnews #scnews pic.twitter.com/ST8Ci7XTpX
— Caitlin Byrd (@MaryCaitlinByrd) May 13, 2017
North Charleston resident Alexis Grant, 22, and her 24-year-old romantic partner, Vashawn Williams, were both charged in relation of the death of Grant’s infant son on May 11 after the child was found unresponsive inside of the hotel room that the couple had been renting.
“Officers were called to the Inn Town Suites on Rivers Avenue in reference to an unresponsive baby [on] Thursday,” at around two in the afternoon.
Grant explained to arriving officers that she first noticed that her son was breathing oddly earlier that day and after feeding him a bottle, the symptoms supposedly worsened.
Emergency officials rushed the toddler to a nearby hospital, where he later died. During the boy’s autopsy, however, it was discovered that he had been severely abused by one of his parents; namely, his mother, Grant.
#BREAKING Mother arrested, charged by @NCPD with Homicide By Child Abuse. PD says infant died Thursday. Bond hearing this morning. #chsnews pic.twitter.com/DDwAfTs4pn
— Alex Caban (@produceralex) May 13, 2017
“The autopsy revealed [that] the infant died of blunt force trauma to his head. He suffered skull fractures, bruising, six broken ribs and a broken left forearm,” court affidavits stated.
“[Also] according to the affidavits, Grant later said she hit the baby’s head multiple times after getting frustrated with him, causing him to fall. Williams [later] admitted to seeing the one-year-old’s mother punch him in his stomach and slam him against a hotel room dresser.”
The North Charleston mother has since been charged with homicide by child abuse, while Williams, her lover, has been hit with charges with unlawful neglect for failing to protect the baby. No word if Williams is the boy’s birth father.
Likewise, there have been no further updates on Shontell Murphy, the non-recipient of her son’s Mother’s Day card.
[Featured Image by Spartanburg County Detention Center]
