A 9-year-old girl who killed her own brother in their aunt’s home using a broomstick is under custody.
A 9-year-old girl who beat up his 4-year-old brother to death was already charged by Alabama prosecutors with a 1st-degree assault and a class b felony after allegedly using a broomstick to beat her younger brother to death.
Meanwhile, Yolanda Coale, 53, the children’s aunt, was charged with aggravated child abuse during her 1st court appearance since her nephew was found badly beaten in her home.
Coale told the authorities that she found the girl hitting her brother with a broomstick after being awakened in the morning by the screams of both children. The complaint went on to say that the girl “did willfully torture, willfully abuse and cruelly beat” her brother.
A Mobile Country District Attorney’s Office said that it could not comment on the case because of the girl’s age. They also didn’t comment if she has been released to another relative or kept in state care.
The court document showed Coale is being held on $150,000 bail after pleading not guilty to the aggravated child abuse charges. She doesn’t have an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
It also showed that the boy had several injuries on his body, proof that shows he was abused physically and an autopsy will determine his cause of death. Authorities said that if she makes bail, she will still be monitored electronically and have no contact with children.
Before her nephew’s death, Coale didn’t have much of a criminal history except for an arrest in 2005 charging her with furnishing alcohol to a minor, a year later she was also been charged with operating a vehicle without insurance and a child restraining order on 2011.
A family friend says something doesn’t add up claiming: “I’ve never seen her yell at anyone, scream, or lose her temper. I’m unaware of any abuse that Ms. Coale could be accused of. I’ve never seen her be aggressive to anyone. To me, her children, her grandchildren.”
After Coale’s court hearing, MCA District Attorney Louis Walker said: “She was the legal guardian of the child during the investigation, Mobile police found evidence of abuse for this child, as he was also found deceased.”
According to Child Advocacy Center of Mobile executive director Andy Wyne, the abuse that happened to the boy was described as being all too common.
Wynne said: “It’s incredibly tragic and unfortunately, it happens a little bit more frequently than I think people want to think about. The non-profit handles at least 500 cases a year, ranging from sexual to physical abuse. There are more cases out there since not all abuse cases come his way.”
“It’s also recognized as the most underreported crime in the country. We probably get about somewhere between 10 and 25% of the kids who are being abused are reported. It’s the high profile, the real tragedies, like the death of this child you’re talking about, that brings forward. But there are lots of kids who are out there suffering and silence,” he added.
Walker would not comment on how long Coale had been the boy’s legal guardian or how she gained custody of the kids. The investigation into the boy’s death remains active and ongoing, according to the arrest report.
In 2020, there were child abuse cases in the United States. There was a decrease from the previous year when there were 656,251 victims of child abuse, and this is the lowest number of victims since 2012.
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