Mon, Jul 06, 2009
 Brandon Williams: signs of abuse.
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Charles E. Gillman Company Accounting Specialist Trades/Construction RANCHO RESORT MAINTANANCE POSITION Administrative & Professional Jorgensen Brooks Group Counselor Mechanical Komatsu Equipment Co Resident Field Mechanic Administrative & Professional Tucson Urban League CEO/President Sales and Marketing Everready Glass Sales Reps Tucson Region5-year-old boy dies; mother is arrestedOfficial: Son got deadly dose of 12 Tylenol PMs from mom
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.23.2007
Before he died, 5-year-old Brandon Williams was fed sleep-inducing medicine twice a day.
His mother, Diane L. Marsh, 39, would sometimes tie him up or plunge his feet into scalding water to discipline him, a sheriff's official said.
On Wednesday night, Brandon died after his mother gave him a lethal dose of 12 Tylenol PMs when he complained of having flu symptoms, the official said.
Marsh and two people who lived with her in the 5500 block of North Silver Stream Way, near West River Road and North La Cholla Boulevard, were arrested Thursday in connection with his death.
Marsh — the second Tucson parent charged in connection with the death of a child this month — told detectives she gave Brandon the sleep aids about 7 p.m. Wednesday, said Bureau Chief Rick Kastigar, head of the Sheriff's Department Investigations Division.
When Marsh went into Brandon's room several hours later, he was unresponsive. She called 911.
Marsh told investigators her son was autistic. Records from the state's Child Protective Services, which had contact with Brandon's family on several occasions, confirmed that, Kastigar said.
Medics arrived about 11:40 p.m. but were unable to revive the boy, whose body temperature had plunged below 80 degrees, Kastigar said. Brandon was taken to Northwest Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
While an official cause of death has not been determined, a Pima County medical examiner told detectives that amount of medicine was enough to kill a boy of Brandon's size, Kastigar said.
The medics who tried to resuscitate Brandon noticed ligature marks — abrasions usually caused by rope burns — on his wrists and ankles. They saw blisters, some cracked and bleeding, on the bottom of his feet and the tops of his toes.
So they contacted sheriff's homicide detectives suspecting the child had been abused, Kastigar said.
Marsh told detectives she regularly gave the child four to five sleeping-aid pills twice a day, Kastigar said. She also told them she would tie him up in an effort to control him and that she submerged his feet in scalding water when he acted out.
She also said she would hit the child with a wire hanger.
Brandon's father, 41-year-old Melvin Williams, said Thursday evening that while his son did have autism, the lengths to which his mother went to control him were unnecessary.
"I could've taken him in, all she had to do was call and say she needed help and I would've done it," he said. "He was hyper, he had tantrums, but he was just 5. . . . Jesus Christ, she didn't need to do that."
Williams, a landscaper, and Marsh divorced in 2005. Brandon was their only child, but Marsh had two other sons.
Williams said Brandon was an active child — running around, talking, and was supposed to be attending kindergarten.
Brandon loved to watch anything on the Disney Channel, his father said, but his favorite cartoon was "Lilo & Stitch." He also enjoyed swimming and going to the park and playing on the swings, he said.
The last time he saw Brandon was in September when Marsh picked him up after an overnight visit. Up until that point he would care for Brandon every other weekend, but Williams said that since then he hadn't been able to get in contact with Marsh.
There were no signs at that time that Brandon was being abused, Williams said. He said he never saw his ex-wife act violently toward Brandon.
"I didn't think she would ever do this," Williams said. "Brandon didn't deserve it; no one does. He was a wonderful little boy who never had a chance to grow up."
Kastigar said investigators think the abuse had been occurring since at least December.
Flower Tompson, 27, and Mark Lee Moss, 47, told detectives they were staying with Marsh because they were homeless and that they didn't notify authorities because they were afraid it might jeopardize their living situation.
Tompson told investigators she sometimes helped Marsh tie the boy up and that she'd seen her whip the boy, Kastigar said. She was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and Moss was booked into jail for failing to report the abuse, Kastigar said.
"He was at the very least complicit to what was going on," Kastigar said. "There is a legal obligation for rational adults to report an abusive situation."
Court records show Brandon was forced to grow up in a troubled household. His father was arrested March 7, 2005, on charges of abusing his brother.
According to the interim complaint filed by the arresting officer, Williams hit his stepson — one of Brandon's two brothers — on the back, then proceeded to choke him, leaving significant marks on his neck, face and ears. Marsh had to pull her husband off the child, who was less than 15 years old at the time.
When Marsh filed for divorce, she requested sole custody of Brandon because of her husband's abusive past, according to court documents.
Williams admitted on Thursday to being involved in the incident with his stepson but said that he never laid a hand on Brandon.
Kastigar said CPS made contact with Marsh and her children on "several instances," at least once after her divorce from Williams.
In August 2006, one of Brandon's two teenage brothers grabbed him and injured his face. The two brothers were placed in foster care, but Brandon stayed with his mother.
CPS would not discuss its involvement with Marsh and her children. Spokeswoman Liz Barker Alvarez said she was advised by the Pima County Attorney's Office not to comment.
Peter Earhart, the president of the Autism Society of America's Pima County chapter, said he understands that raising an autistic child can at times be frustrating. His autistic daughter sometimes presented him with challenges, he said.
But never, he said, could he understand how someone could drug or bind a child.
For one thing, because autism is so complicated, such abusive measures can have the opposite effect on the child, he said. And there are resources available for parents or guardians with autistic children.
Earlier this month, Christopher Payne, 28, was indicted on charges that he killed his two children, Ariana, 4, and Tyler, 5. His daughter's body was found in a storage unit, while his son's body has yet to be recovered.
On StarNet: Find more crime stories at azstarnet.com/crime
● Contact reporters Dale Quinn and Alexis Huicochea at 629-9412 or dquinn@azstarnet.com or ahuicochea@azstarnet.com.
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