MAN, MOM SET FOR TRIAL IN SLAYING BOYFRIEND IS CHARGED IN KILLING OF 5-YEAR-OLD.Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer A Rosamond man and his mother were ordered Friday to stand trial on charges in connection with the beating death of his girlfriend's 5-year-old son. George "Bleu" Tyler, 27, is charged with murder and child abuse in the August 2006 death of Darion Wheat. His mother, Mavis Watson, 45, of Lake Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. is facing a count of aiding after a felony felony (fĕl`ənē), any grave crime, in contrast to a misdemeanor, that is so declared in statute or was so considered in common law. . They were bound over for trial on those charges after an hourlong hour·long or hour-long adj. Lasting an hour: an hourlong television episode. Adj. 1. preliminary hearing in Kern Kern, river, 155 mi (249 km) long, rising in the S Sierra Nevada Mts., E Calif., and flowing south, then southwest to a reservoir in the extreme southern part of the San Joaquin valley. The river has Isabella Dam as its chief facility. County Superior Court in Bakersfield. "They are set to be arraigned on the information on March 26," Kern County Deputy District Attorney Scott Spielman said. Darion's mother, Dionna Wheat, 22, has been charged with felony child endangerment and being an accessory after a felony. She is scheduled to appear for preliminary hearing in May. All three have pleaded not guilty. Tyler remained in custody, and Watson and Dionna Wheat were free after posting bail. Darion's father, Darnell Wheat, filed a $5 million wrongful death claim Wrongful death is a claim in common law jurisdictions against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as enumerated by statute. against Los Angeles County in February, alleging that the Department of Children and Family Services was negligent negligent adj., adv. careless in not fulfilling responsibility. (See: negligence) in the handling of the family's case, which contributed to the child's death. Authorities said Dionna Wheat originally told them that Darion died after she accidentally ran over him with her car in their Rosamond driveway. But an autopsy indicated Darion died from blunt-force trauma inconsistent with being run over by a car, Kern County officials said. Two months before his death, Darion visited his grandmother, Annie Ray, and told her he was afraid of his mother's boyfriend. The grandmother said she found bruises Bruises Definition Bruises, or ecchymoses, are a discoloration and tenderness of the skin or mucous membranes due to the leakage of blood from an injured blood vessel into the tissues. Pupura refers to bruising as the result of a disease condition. on Darion's 4-year-old brother and called authorities, but social workers allowed the boys and a toddler brother and infant sister to return to their mother. Investigators believe Darion was beaten to death Aug. 9, 2006, in his mother's home. Ray had had custody of the older children until December 2005. Tyler had been under a court order to stay away from Darion and the two younger boys, though not the 8-month-old girl, who is his daughter, a Department of Children and Family Services report shows. Ray said in an interview with the Daily News that she was told the court order was issued when the children were returned to their mother because Tyler refused to be fingerprinted for a background check. Ray said a social worker told her the order had not been enforced because it was never served on Tyler. Social workers also told her visits to the Buckwheat buckwheat, common name for certain members of the Polygonaceae, a family of herbs and shrubs found chiefly in north temperate areas and having a characteristic pungent juice containing oxalic acid. Species native to the United States are most common in the West. Avenue home in Rosamond showed no signs a man was living there. A department status report that Ray obtained after she made her complaint in June said that the children's mother seemed to have a loving relationship with them, that the house was clean when social workers arrived for unannounced visits and that there were no safety concerns involving her. A sheriff's deputy who accompanied social workers to Ray's home to investigate her abuse report dismissed the bruises on the younger boy's buttocks buttocks /but·tocks/ (but´oks) the two fleshy prominences formed by the gluteal muscles on the lower part of the back. as minor, Ray said. Ray said she got custody of the older children in February 2004 after they were found in a car after a police chase that ended in Van Nuys. A year before, they had wound up in temporary protective custody An arrangement whereby a person is safeguarded by law enforcement authorities in a location other than the person's home because his or her safety is seriously threatened. after they were found at a Mojave motel where Dionna Wheat's boyfriend was arrested, she said. karen.maeshiro@dailynews.com (661) 267-5744 |
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