QUA'MERE ROGERS - 2 yo (2007) - Syracuse NY

A Syracuse man has been arrested after police say he gave his two-year-old son to a stranger he met in Brooklyn two years ago.Damion Davis is charged with child abandonment.
His son, Qua'mere Rogers -- now four -- has not been seen since July 2007. Police
didn't know Rogers existed until someone called them this past July and
said Davis knew the whereabouts of a missing child. It turns out Davis fathered Rogers with a 15-year-old in the summer of 2005. The mother walked out on the pair two years later. When
he was arrested two days ago, Davis told police he handed the toddler
over to someone he met at a friend's apartment in Brooklyn in July of
2007. That person was with a group called the "United Nation of Moors".Police
have no idea whether Rogers is alive or well-cared for. What's worse,
they have no way of verifying Davis' story, so they're asking anyone
with information about either the child or his father to call them.Davis goes by several aliases. You might know him as Yakeef Davis, Rakeef Davis, Zayquan Ross or Zayquan Rose.If you know anything about either Davis or Rogers, call investigators at 442-5330. Davis has also been charged with rape and endangering the welfare of the child for the relationship he had with Rogers’ mother.

A former Syracuse man is facing up to seven years in prison after
being found guilty Wednesday in an assault authorities contend was
linked to the disappearance of a young boy several years ago.

That little boy remains missing and the District Attorney's office
recently confirmed authorities have not ruled out the possibility he was
the victim of a homicide.

In court Wednesday, a jury acquitted Mustafa Burrell of attempted
second-degree murder but convicted him of second-degree assault in a
stabbing that occurred Dec. 4, 2008.

Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Cali said today authorities
believe Edward Phillips was stabbed because he was asking too many
questions about the whereabouts of Qua'mere Rogers, a child born to an
underage girl and Damion Davis in June 2005.

Davis, Burrell and Phillips had been friends for some time and were
roommates, Cali said. Phillips had regularly cared for the Rogers child
and had been asking questions in November and December 2008 why he
hadn't seen the little boy in some time, the prosecutor said.

According to Cali, Burrell woke Phillips about 5 a.m. Dec. 4, 2008,
and walked him to an alley between Columbus Avenue and Cherry Street.
After forcing Edwards to get down on his knees, Burrell stabbed the
victim in the neck, the prosecutor said.

Phillips managed to fight off Burrell and escape, running to the
Burger King restaurant in the 1500 block of Erie Boulevard East to get
help, Cali said.

According to Cali, Phillips disappeared from the area shortly after
being released from the hospital and jail where he had faced a charge of
selling bootleg CDs. The stabbing case was dormant until the following
year when authorities were first told about Davis and the missing Rogers
child, the prosecutor said.

Davis was arrested in October 2009 on charges of rape - for having
sexual relations with the 15-year-old girl who later gave birth to
Rogers - and abandonment of a child - for the disappearance of the
little boy.

Authorities initially said Davis was reported to have given the
little boy away to a man in Brooklyn when the child was between 8 and 12
months old.

Cali recently said authorities no longer believe that's what happened
but have not been able to locate the child. He said officials have not
ruled out the possibility the child was killed.

The prosecution, however, dropped the child abandonment charge
against Davis last year and are pursuing only third-degree rape charges
for the conception of the child. Davis also is facing unrelated charges
in a separate domestic violence case.

It was while police were investigating the child abandonment
allegations in 2009 that officials located Phillips in Pennsylvania and
the prosecution obtained a sealed attempted murder indictment against
Burrell, Cali said. Burrell was arrested in July 2010 in Delaware and
brought back to Syracuse to be prosecuted.

In court last week, Cali told County Judge Fahey the prosecution
wanted to use the Rogers child issue to show a motive for Burrell's
attack on Phillips and an incident several days earlier in which
Phillips reported was beaten up by Davis. Defense lawyer Frank Scibilia
objected that it would prejudice the case against Burrell and Fahey
directed the lawyers not to mention the details of the dispute leading
up to the stabbing.

Burrell, 32, is to be sentenced by Fahey March 10 for the assault conviction.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/dispute_over_missing_child_lea.html

October 5th, 2011
Syracuse, NY - A Syracuse man under investigation in the
disappearance of his young son is facing up to four years in state
prison after being convicted in an unrelated domestic violence case.


An Onondaga County jury Tuesday convicted Damion Davis, 41, of felony
first-degree unlawful imprisonment and misdemeanor counts of
third-degree assault and menacing. The jury acquitted him of felony
counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and attempted
second-degree assault.


The charges stemmed from an incident last Oct. 27 in which Davis was
accused of restraining and injuring Tyanni Yarbrough while armed with a
metal pick attached to a screwdriver handle. Authorities said Davis and
Yarbrough were living together at the time.


That incident occurred while Davis was out of jail awaiting
resolution of third-degree rape charges involving his previous
relationship with an underage girl.


That case involves allegations Davis engaged in a sexual relationship
with the girl in 2004, resulting in her giving birth to a baby boy in
2005. Authorities learned from a tipster in 2009 that Davis had given
the infant to a man in Brooklyn some time when the child was between 8
and 12 months old.


Davis was charged in October 2009 with felony child abandonment, but
the district attorney’s office decided last year not to pursue a
prosecution of Davis on that charge while authorities continued their
search for the missing boy.


Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Cali has said the whereabouts of
the child, known as Qua’mere Rogers, remain unknown and authorities have
not ruled out the possibility the child was the victim of a homicide.


The rape case is still pending. Davis faces sentencing in the domestic violence case Nov. 7.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/suspect_in_missing_child_case.html

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/man_under_investigation_in_mis.html

Syracuse, NY - A Syracuse man under investigation in the disappearance of his young son was sentenced today to 1 1/3 to four years in state prison in an unrelated domestic violence case.

Cali has said the whereabouts of the child - known as Qua'mere Rogers - remain unknown and authorities have not ruled out the possibility the child was the victim of a homicide.

Davis was offered an opportunity today to plead guilty to the statutory rape charge and receive a sentence to be served at the same time as the domestic violence assault penalty Aloi imposed.

But he turned down any deal and Aloi scheduled the rape case to go to trial Jan. 17.

Damion Davis had nothing to say before County Judge Anthony Aloi imposed the sentence.

A County Court jury convicted Davis, 41, in October of first-degree unlawful imprisonment, third-degree assault and second-degree menacing. The charges stemmed from an incident Oct. 27, 2010, in which Davis was accused of restraining and injuring Tyanni Yarbrough while armed with a metal pick attached to a screwdriver handle.

Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Cali told Aloi in court today that it was just part of a long-standing pattern of violence by Davis aimed at the women and girls in his life.

Cali said Davis has numerous children with different women who have been the victims of his violent behavior. Those children bear the fake name Davis was using at the time of his relationship with the various woman, the prosecutor said.

In fact, he pointed out Yarbrough did not know Davis' real name until she learned it as part of the prosecution of him in the domestic violence assault incident.

Defense lawyer Jarrod Smith asked Aloi to consider sentencing Davis to probation instead of jail. He blamed the defendant's criminal problems on Davis' history of mental health issues.

After imposing the maximum penalty as Cali requested, Aloi called the lawyers to the bench to see if he could work out a resolution of a pending charge in which Davis is accused of statutory rape in connection with allegations he engaged in a sexual relationship with an underage girl in 2004, resulting in her giving birth to a baby boy in 2005.

Authorities learned from a tipster in 2009 that Davis had given the infant to a man in Brooklyn sometime when the child was between 8 and 12 months old.

Cali has said the whereabouts of the child - known as Qua'mere Rogers - remain unknown and authorities have not ruled out the possibility the child was the victim of a homicide.

Davis was offered an opportunity today to plead guilty to the statutory rape charge and receive a sentence to be served at the same time as the domestic violence assault penalty Aloi imposed.

But he turned down any deal and Aloi scheduled the rape case to go to trial Jan. 17.

Syracuse, N.Y. — If Qua’mere Sincere Rogers is alive, he is 6 years old. He would be old enough to be in first grade.

But his Syracuse family has not seen him in at least three years. Authorities have been searching since receiving an anonymous tip in 2009 that the boy was missing. He had not been seen in about eight months at that point. Authorities now fear he may be dead.

“In the simplest terms, we are treating this case as a homicide,” said Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick. “We have been for quite some time and are investigating it on an active basis.”

The boy’s disappearance is expected to become a subplot in a rape trial that begins today of a man accused of having sex with an underaged girl. The girl, who was 15 at the time, is Qua’mere’s mother.

The man, Damion Davis, 41, is the last person known to have had custody of the boy before he went missing. Davis says he gave the boy away to a man in Brooklyn. Authorities do not believe him.

Little is known about the little boy who played Nerf basketball with his teenage uncle and was a fan of SpongeBob SquarePants. Prosecutors say the boy grew up surrounded by violence. His grandmother says she has not seen him since 2007 or 2008.

“I don’t know,” said Annie Williams. “It’s been so long.”

Qua’mere’s mother met Davis in 2004 when she was 15 and gave birth to her child at Crouse Hospital when she was 16, according to court records. The mother’s name is redacted in court records and The Post-Standard does not identify victims in cases involving allegations of sexual misconduct. Attempts to reach her were unsuccessful.

Williams said her daughter moved to live with a friend in Auburn when she was 14 or 15. She did not learn of her daughter’s pregnancy until she returned to Syracuse about a month before giving birth to Qua’mere in June 2005. Williams said she does not know how her daughter met Davis.
Qua'mere Sincere Rogers

She said her daughter and Davis lived in Utica and then on James Street in Syracuse. “Once in a blue moon, she would stay with me,” Williams said. The daughter told Williams that Davis was keeping her locked in the couple’s home until she finally escaped by climbing out a window, Williams said.

Que’mere’s mother told investigators she handed over the boy in 2007 to Davis after he knocked out two of her front teeth, said Jeremy Cali, an assistant district attorney. “I was scared to return and didn’t go back,” the mother said in a statement to police in 2009.

She said Davis used an alias with her. “Damion lied to me about everything,” she told police. “When we first met, I was 15 years old and he told me he was 18 years old.”

Neither Qua’mere’s mother nor her family reported the boy as missing or in danger. “I figured she (Qua’mere’s mother) knew about it, and I was not going to worry about it,” Williams said.

“It seems this boy lived in some awful circumstances and did go unnoticed for quite a while,” said Cali, the prosecutor.

An anonymous tipster alerted Syracuse police in the summer of 2009 that the boy was missing, Cali said. Authorities learned the boy was last seen in late November 2008 when he would have been 3, Cali said.
Damion Davis, formerly of 112 S. Carbon St., Syracuse, told police he gave Qua'mere Sincere Rogers to a man in Brooklyn. Davis was charged with abandonment, but that charge was dropped when investigators decided his story was not credible. Police think the little boy has been killed.

Davis, however, told authorities that he gave the boy to a man in Brooklyn when the child was between 8 and 12 months old. Davis said he believed the man was named Yusef Ben Ali and it was the only time they had met. Davis did not provide a location for the encounter.

Davis said the man was a member of the United Nation of Moors and might have taken the child to Georgia with the group. The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors has been described in news reports as a quasi-religious cult based in Georgia with about 500 members, many originally from Brooklyn.

The Moors, Davis told police, were going to take care of the boy until he got back on his feet. Davis said he was given a phone number, but that the contact information was no good.

Davis was charged in October 2009 with abandonment of a child, a felony, but that charge was dropped because investigators decided Davis’ story was “not credible,” Cali said.

Williams, however, believes her grandson is living in Brooklyn. She has no evidence other than she believes that is where Davis’ mother lives. She suspects the child is living with her.

But authorities say that isn’t true.

“We have followed up on numerous leads, including sending detectives to New York City to look for the child, and we have not been able to locate the child,” said Sgt. Tom Connellan, spokesman for the Syracuse Police Department.

While the abandonment charge was dropped, Davis, formerly of 112 S. Carbon St., remains charged with third-degree rape. He was accused of engaging in sex with an underage girl — Qua’mere’s mother — between August and November 2004. Authorities originally contended that relationship led to the boy’s birth in June 2005.

Williams said she received a subpoena Friday to testify in Davis’ trial, and a Syracuse police detective gave her news that shocked her: Based on DNA evidence, Davis isn’t Qua’mere’s father. Cali acknowledges DNA will be used at Davis’ trial. He declined to say what it will reveal.

Regardless of his relationship with the boy, authorities describe Davis as the last person to have custody of Qua’mere. “We believe he (Davis) was involved in some manner in the death of the little boy,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s difficult to prove a negative, but we have no evidence that the boy was given away or anything like that.”

With the boy missing, it’s hard to prove he was murdered.

“We don’t have a crime scene; we don’t have a body,” Fitzpatrick said. He believes Davis probably had custody of the boy until he disappeared at the age of 3.

During that time, the two kept company with violent people, Cali said.

On Dec. 4, 2008, one friend of Davis brutally assaulted another friend, who frequently baby-sat Qua’mere, authorities said. The victim’s neck was cut with a knife.

Cali said authorities believe the man was attacked after he asked questions about the boy’s whereabouts, but the judge didn’t permit that theory to be used in the trial. Last March, the man was sentenced to seven years in state prison.

And late last year, Davis was sentenced to 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison in a domestic violence case. Davis was accused of restraining and injuring a woman while armed with a metal pick attached to a screwdriver handle.

As with the case of the baby sitter, the jury was not told about a motive for Davis’ attack, but authorities believe he wanted to punish the woman for talking to police about the missing child, Cali said.

Police are not any closer to learning what happened to Qua’mere. There are no new leads, Connellan said.

“There’s a good probability that Damion Davis knows what has happened to the child, but he’s not cooperating,” Connellan said.

Police hope someone might recognize Davis or remember seeing him with the child. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 442-5330.

Ha’zeem Johnson, the brother of Qua’mere’s mother, is also seeking the public’s help. He created a Facebook page and a YouTube video that list Williams’ phone number. The YouTube video has no sound — just the boy’s photo and a request for anyone with information to call.

Johnson, 17, doesn’t have many memories of the nephew who is 11 years his junior. He has not seen the boy since 2007. “We watched ‘SpongeBob’ and stuff like that,” Johnson recalled.

Created in 2010, the online appeal has generated no leads.

Authorities are not optimistic.

“There’s nothing new on the status of that child,” Connellan said.

“In the vast majority of missing children this young . . . it invariably ends up badly,” Fitzpatrick said. “Sadly, that’s what we think has happened here.”

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/syracuse_rape_trial_puts_new_s.html

Syracuse, NY - A Syracuse man under investigation for the
disappearance of a young boy several years ago was sentenced to state
prison today for having a sexual relationship with the child's teenage
mother.


County Judge Anthony Aloi sentenced Damion Davis to the maximum
penalty of 1 1/3 to four years in state prison for third-degree rape.


The judge ordered that sentence to be served consecutively to a
penalty of 1 1/3 to four years Davis already is serving for an unrelated
domestic violence incident.


Davis, 41, delivered a rambling 15-minute speech in court today about
mind-control conspiracies, human cloning, drug and sex abuse, religion,
black holes, nanotechnology, spirits and extraterrestrials.


Davis claimed Syracuse is a hot spot of unusual activity.


"I'm here to investigate and it always leads me here," he told Aloi.
Davis contended he was a "designated driver" in the attempt to get
answers about the takeover of the world by others.


View full sizeDick Blume / The Post-StandardDamion Davis, with his attorney Jarrod Smith, talking during his sentencing in Onondaga County Court.

He concluded his speech to the judge by reading a lengthy list of the
names of some authors, religious and political leaders from the past,
claiming they are his teachers with whom he regularly meets "on the
fourth dimension."


Included in that list was "The Revenge of the Nerds."'


Unlike a couple of prior appearances when Davis began screaming and
ranting in court, he remained calm throughout his lengthy recitation to
the judge today.


Davis missed his own rape trial last month after Aloi banned him from
the courtroom after Davis began ranting wildly before jury selection
began.


A jury deliberated about two hours before finding Davis guilty of two
counts of third-degree rape and one count of endangering the welfare of
a child.


The charges involved allegations he engaged in a sexual relationship
with a 15-year-old girl back in 2004. Authorities initially thought
Davis was the father of the baby boy that girl gave birth to in 2005,
but DNA tests conducted last year proved he was not the father.


The boy, Qua'mere Rogers, has been missing for several years.
Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Cali today said authorities are still
investigaing the circumstances of the child's disappearance since the
boy last had been seen in Davis' custody.


Cali has said previously that authorities suspect the boy may have been the victim of a homicide.


Outside court today, Cali said he suspected Davis' conduct before the
judge was all an act. The judge has suggested the same in the past,
noting that every time Davis acted out and was ordered to undergo a
psychiatric evaluation, doctors found nothing wrong with him.


Defense lawyer Jarrod Smith said he did not think Davis was acting.
But he could offer liittle explanation for his client's bizarre conduct
in the courtroom.


Smith, however, said, Davis continues to maintain his innocence.
http://blog.syracuse.com/news/print.html?entry=/2012/04/suspect_in_missing_child_case_1.html