A five-year-old Brooklyn boy who witnessed his brother’s deadly beating lives daily with the ghost of his brother’s death.
According to police, the surviving child helplessly sees his mother’s brutal boyfriend abusing a little four-year-old Jace Eubanks in a Gowanus House apartment. I shared ugly details with people. And now, young people are having a hard time dealing with the memory of the pre-dawn horror caused by the murderer Jeremiah Johnson on September 11.
“He spouts wherever he goes.” My brother is dead, my brother is dead. Jeremiah killed him, he is now in jail, “said Barbara Delvalle, the boy’s maternal grandmother. “My grandson will need a lot of help for the rest of his life.
“He’s angry. He’s very angry. And at the age of five, he doesn’t know how to express himself.”
Johnson and the boy’s mom feel disappointed in the city’s child service bureau as Johnson, 27, stays behind a bar on Rikers Island until the court day on November 10 for murder. increase.
The agency was called a few weeks before his death after the teacher noticed the scratches on his two brothers when they came to school.
“(My daughter) said,’I wish ACS took him. I wish I had an ACS case rather than a corpse,” Del Valle said.
ACS issued a statement to support the family without directly commenting on the investigation.
“Jace’s death is a terrible tragedy and we mourn his loss,” the agency said. “We are conducting a thorough review of this case to ensure that we are doing everything possible to maintain the safety of our children and the support of their families.”
According to Del Valle and court documents, Johnson, 6 feet 160 pounds, was plagued by Jace’s dedication to his mother. When the five-year-old brother stood nearby, the boyfriend then undertook it to “strengthen” the child, the violent details of the last moment of Jace’s life burned into his head. ..
“His brother heard his last words,” said grandfather James Carter Jr., 37, in Jace’s sorrowful awakening last Thursday. “That’s why Jace has justice.”
Autopsy of a small victim revealed multiple injuries, both old and new, inflicted in Brooklyn’s Horror House: Healing Skull Fractures and Recent Rib Fractures. He has multiple bruises and abrasions on his body, limbs, back and abdomen. According to the Brooklyn District Attorney, there are bites on both ears.
The little boy wore a blue vest, a matching bow tie, and a Mets hat in a small white casket at a funeral in Brooklyn. An arc of blue and white balloons is floating above. The family cried at a glance, and some of the mourners wore black T-shirts with the words “Justice for Jace.”
Grandfather Carter added a small stuffed green Tyrannosaurus rex to the casket and remembered that it was always Jace’s favorite toy.
“Who wants to harm the baby?” He asked. “He loved everyone. If he had touched you, you knew he loved everyone.”
Johnson’s old Brooklyn neighbor remembered how surprised she was when she heard about the arrest of a man who once came to her house and played with her son.
“He never looked for trouble,” the woman said. “I don’t know what happened to him in his head. He’s known since he was little. It’s very difficult.”
Mom Rikia Delvalle cried when she spoke to both Jace in the casket and the broken heart she lives with every day.
“I love you very much,” she said. “I keep expecting him to come to my bed. I keep expecting him to knock on my door. I love you and I miss you I hope there is a kind dinosaur where you are. “