Babysitting boyfriend beats 2-year-old to death (St. Louis, Missouri)

Babysitting boyfriend MONTRELL MOORE is charged with first-degree murder, felony abuse of a child, and felony endangerment of a child in the beating death of his girlfriend's two-year-old son. The child died of blunt force trauma, and also had a lacerated liver and spleen. The mother worked the night shift, and required childcare. It's too bad there are not many childcare options open to mothers who are forced to work nights, because these sorts of crimes happen when working moms are forced to rely on boyfriends, daddies, and the like.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/8E8EFC1C0C45D528862575E5005282BE?OpenDocument

Funeral still not set for slain toddler

By Carolyn Tuft
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
06/30/2009

ST. LOUIS -- The grandfather of a toddler who prosecutor's say died at the hands of the boyfriend of the child's mother said that his daughter was a good mother to her children.

Samar "Sam" Brown, 2, of St. Louis, died Saturday after he was rushed to a St. Louis hospital. On Monday, St. Louis prosecutors charged the boyfriend -- Montrell Moore, 23, of the 2000 block of Destrehan Street near the city's Hyde Park -- with first-degree murder, felony abuse of a child and felony endangering the welfare of a child. Moore is being held in the St. Louis city jail in lieu of a $1 million cash-only bond.

Samar's grandfather -- Larry Coates Sr. of Cahokia -- said this morning that Samar's mother was still working on funeral arrangements. He said that his daughter -- Lacy Coates, 27, of St. Louis -- is distraught over her only son's death. She had been dating Moore since December and Moore was watching the child for her while she worked an overnight shift.

Coates Sr. said that he had a stroke in the past year and had not seen his grandson Samar since then because the child was allergic to dogs. Coates Sr. has two dogs at his home."I regret that more than anything that because of the dogs I didn't get to see him very much," Coates Sr. said today.

The family will be releasing where a funeral will be held as soon as the arrangements are made, he said. Lacy Coates also has a daughter, 9, Coates Sr. said.

Police said that at 8:10 a.m. on Saturday, an ambulance arrived at an apartment where Samar Brown was staying in the 1900 block of Mallinckrodt Street, a few blocks from Moore's home. Police said that Moore is the boyfriend of Samar's mother.

When paramedics arrived at the home, Samar was not breathing and was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at 8:51 a.m. on Saturday.

The St. Louis medical examiner conducted an autopsy and found the child had died from blunt force trauma. Samar also suffered a lacerated spleen, a lacerated liver and other internal injuries, O'Sullivan said.

After an investigation by homicide detectives, police discovered that Moore had killed the child, O'Sullivan said.