Authorities allege that a Texas mother turned a blind eye to her boyfriend beating her 3-year-old son over a sustained period. Now the boy is dead — and his mother as well as her boyfriend are charged with capital murder.
An arrest warrant states that Christopher Alexander — the boyfriend of Chelsea Berg — brought 3-year-old Dawson Zamora to Medical City McKinney on Oct. 14, KFDA-TV reported.
‘Chelsea knew that Dawson was demonstrating signs of severe illness and physical deterioration, yet neglected to remove Dawson from the dangerous situation and failed to obtain appropriate care for his injuries.’
Medical staff determined the child was covered in “apparent physical injuries in various stages of healing” and immediately became concerned about intentional trauma or abuse, the station said.
Witnesses then observed Alexander speaking in an agitated manner on the phone with Berg, who is Dawson’s mother, KFDA reported.
Witnesses added that they could hear Berg making accusatory statements toward Alexander and Alexander saying he “had to get rough with the child and strike the child in the stomach while trying to wake him up,” the station said.
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Documents indicate that Berg told detectives her son previously had been hospitalized for normal illnesses but added that she recently noticed bruising on his body, KFDA reported.
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She indicated she thought the child’s day care was responsible for the injuries. She also indicated that she trusted Alexander to watch Dawson and made statements to indicate she had “never seen anything alarming concerning Christopher and her children.”
Documents state detectives showed Berg photographs of Dawson taken during the current incident, which included severe physical injuries throughout his head, chest, abdomen, back, and all extremities. Berg denied having seen most of the current injuries and was shocked by the severity of the injuries.
Documents indicate that Berg didn’t suggest that Alexander was responsible for the abuse, KFDA said.
Soon Dawson was taken to Children’s Medical Center Dallas, where medical staff determined that the child’s injuries likely would result in death or permanent disabilities, the station said.
Detectives then got a search warrant for the apartment of Berg, Alexander, and Dawson, KFDA reported.
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Documents also note that investigators collected evidence in the apartment suggesting someone may have been hurt — and there may have been an attempt to clean or conceal blood or other trace evidence, the station said.
What’s more, through search warrants detectives downloaded data from multiple cell phones and electronic devices — and documents say detectives found evidence illustrating that Dawson suffered numerous injuries over the past months while alone with Alexander, KFDA reported.
Police added to the station that the evidence “clearly indicated that Chelsea observed the injuries on her child, knew that her child was continuously getting hurt with Christopher, and clearly knew the dangers that Christopher presented to her children.”
In addition, documents added that “Chelsea knew that Dawson was demonstrating signs of severe illness and physical deterioration, yet neglected to remove Dawson from the dangerous situation and failed to obtain appropriate care for his injuries,” KFDA reported.
Dawson died Sunday of his injuries, the station said.
KFDA, citing the arrest warrant, states that evidence indicates Alexander had been physically assaulting the boy over a period of at least 30 days — and that both Berg and Alexander noticed his visible injuries.
Police added to the station that evidence also suggests the couple feared Child Protective Services would investigate them if they sought medical treatment for Dawson. In addition, KFDA noted that the couple “deliberately omitted pertinent information about the cause of the child’s injuries” at one point, according to documents.
Berg was arrested Monday — the day after her son’s death — and charged with capital murder, the station said, adding that Alexander’s charges were upgraded to capital murder.
KFDA noted that a Texas capital murder conviction is punishable by death or life in prison.
Berg and Alexander were first arrested in October and charged with injury to a child, a first-degree felony, KTVT-TV reported, adding that Alexander also was charged with tampering with evidence.
Berg had been out of jail on bond until she was arrested again Monday, KTVT said, adding that Alexander remained in the Collin County Jail.
Dawson’s father, Dahrian Zamora, confirmed his son’s death Sunday in a social media post, KTVT said, adding that Dahrian’s birthday also was on Sunday.
“His gift to me was his final breath, and we are now forever interlocked with my birth and his death,” Dahrian Zamora wrote on Facebook, KTVT added. “He held on to spend one last birthday with me and refused to go until then.”
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