WILLIAM YATES - 2 yo (2010) - Fayetteville NC

William Yates was just shy of 2 years old when his body was found in a Fayetteville home last summer.
His head, chest and abdomen had been severely beaten. The medical
examiner ruled his death a homicide. But in the eight months since
William's body was found, there have been no arrests.
Family members of the child say they don't understand why the case is dragging.
"I'm pretty upset," said William's father, James McIntyre.
"I'm not sure what's taking them so long to make an arrest.''
The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office says William was with his
mother and her boyfriend when deputies were called July 31 to Pine
Springs Apartments, on the 4600 block of Elcone Drive off Cumberland Road.
In a call to 911 that day, a man who identifies himself as Mike
reports that the child was not breathing or moving. While the man's
voice sounds calm and collected, a woman in the background, identified
by the caller as William's mother, is heard screaming hysterically for
most of the nearly seven-minute call.
"Please help my baby. Oh, my god. Oh, my god," the woman screams. "He's only 1! He's only 1!"
The 911 operator directs the man to begin CPR, but he tells the
operator the mother is the one attempting to blow air into the child's
lungs and compress his chest.
When medics and a deputy arrived, they found William unresponsive
lying on his stomach on a couch, said Debbie Tanna, a spokeswoman for
the Sheriff's Office. At the time, the child's mother, 24-year-old
Malissa Yates, and her boyfriend were at the apartment.
The deputy called homicide investigators, Tanna said.
Since then, investigators have continued to question people, she said.
According to a report by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in
Chapel Hill, 21-month-old William had severe blunt-force injuries to the
head, chest and abdomen, including brain hemorrhaging, a fractured
clavicle and rib and lacerations to his liver and pancreas, according to
the report. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.
"The number, locations and severity of the injuries are consistent
with abusive (inflicted) trauma," says the report, signed by Dr.
Jonathan Privette, assistant chief medical examiner. "The gross and
microscopic characteristics of the injuries indicate at least two
episodes of abusive trauma separated by at least several days."
Yates, who had two children with McIntyre, declined to comment on
Friday, saying her lawyer had advised her not to discuss the case.
In November, she was charged with misdemeanor child abuse involving
William's older brother, identified in court documents as 4-year-old
James A. Yates. The alleged abuse began July 1 and ended July 31, the
day William died, according to documents filed in court by the Sheriff's Office.
A doctor found "multiple hyper-pigmented marks" with a looped pattern
on the left side of the child's chest, indicating he had been struck
with a belt and that it was not an accident, according to the Sheriff's Office.
The boy told investigators his mother had hit him with a belt,
according to documents filed in court by sheriff's Detective Yovana Vest.
Yates initially denied spanking the child with anything other than
her hand, but her story changed once she was shown pictures of the injuries, Vest wrote.
"Malissa Yates stated that she got her belt and swung it at the
victim while he ran around the room wildly," Vest wrote. "Malissa Yates
advised that she had struck the victim three times with the belt without his shirt on."
That case is pending. McIntyre said his son is now with him. He has
been in hearings with the Cumberland County Department of Social
Services seeking permanent custody of James, he said.
Brenda Jackson, the director of DSS, said in an e-mail that after
consulting with the Sheriff's Office she decided not to release "any
information related to the Yates child fatality." Jackson would not say
what the status is of the other child, citing privacy laws.
Until this week, the Sheriff's Office never acknowledged it was
investigating William's death, and it was not included in the homicide
totals for last year released by the department - numbers that indicated
all the year's homicides had been solved.
Tanna said the death was omitted because investigators weren't sure
until last month, when the Sheriff's Office received the medical
examiner's final report, that William's death was a homicide.
"In this situation, when we got to the scene, we couldn't really tell
what the baby's injuries were because the baby had been dead for a
while when we got there," Tanna said. "All we had when we got there was a
dead infant on a sofa with no obvious signs of any trauma to the body -
none that we could say that was committed by someone in the house at the time."
She said investigators continue to interview people in William's
death, and they have made progress since getting the final autopsy report in February.
McIntyre said he's in disbelief that no one has been charged.
"I'm curious as to who's going to get charged with his death," McIntyre said. "I'm pretty frustrated right now."

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/03/26/1080627?sac=Home

Fayetteville woman charged in son's death


April 5, 2011


Malissa Yates

Fayetteville, N.C. — A Fayetteville woman is charged in the death of her 1-year-old child, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.

Malissa Yates, 24, of 6089 Lunar Drive, was arrested late Monday afternoon and charged with first-degree murder and felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury.

Yates was being held without bond in the Cumberland County Detention Center.

Investigators say Yates assaulted her son in July. The State Medical Examiner’s Office determined the child died of blunt force trauma to the head, chest and abdomen.

Yates will make her first court appearance on Tuesday.

Yates was charged with misdemeanor child abuse in November, according to state Department of Correction records.

The state will not seek the death penalty against Malissa Yates, who
is accused of first-degree murder in the death of her 21-month-old son,
William, in July 2010.

Assistant District Attorney Rita Cox announced in a hearing Friday
that the circumstances surrounding the boy's homicide do not meet North
Carolina's minimum requirements for the state to seek the death penalty.

Now, if Yates is convicted of first-degree murder, the penalty would be life in prison without parole.

William was found beaten to death in the apartment of Yates'
boyfriend. Yates was arrested in April. In addition to first-degree
murder, she was charged with felony child abuse inflicting serious
injury in William's death. In November, she also was charged with
misdemeanor child abuse on an allegation that she hit William's older
brother with a belt.

Yates was jailed in April without bail. Superior Court Judge Jim
Ammons agreed Friday to reduce her bail to $500,000 with electronic
house arrest.

Yates' lawyer, Robert Buzzard, said at the hearing that Yates wasn't
at the apartment much of the night that William was killed. She returned
about 4 a.m., he said.

Her boyfriend was there, Buzzard said. Also, Buzzard said, the older
child, then age 4, made statements to a detective that implicated the
boyfriend. Buzzard said the boyfriend later was determined to be
deceptive when he took a polygraph.

The boyfriend has not been charged in the case.

Cox said William's autopsy showed many injuries - some fresh, some old and healing.

He had been hit in the head and throughout his body. He had multiple
internal injuries, was bleeding internally and had two broken bones. A
doctor said the injuries were like those of someone who had been in a
car accident.

Cox said Yates told detectives she left the apartment about 1:30 a.m. that day and returned about 4:30 a.m.

Yates attributed one of the broken bones to a fall, Cox said, and
other internal injuries to the 4-year-old jumping on his little brother.

Yates became angry when the older child was taken to a doctor for
evaluation, Cox said, and did not want anyone to talk to the child.

The case is scheduled to have at least two more pre-trial hearings.
http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/10/07/1128425?sac=Home