Photo: GoFundMe
A California barber has been charged after he allegedly beat a six-year-old boy with a piece of lumber, killing him.
Ernest Lamar Love, a barber at Love’s Placentia barbershop, has been charged with one felony count of murder, one felony count of torture, and one felony count of child abuse causing death in connection to the killing of Chance Crawford, 6.
According to prosecutors, Crawford's mom dropped her son off at the barbershop so Love could babysit him while she was working a night shift at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Love allegedly used a piece of lumber to beat Crawford after he urinated in his pants at a local park.
Love poured hydrogen peroxide on the boy's wounds before ordering him to do push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks, prosecutors state. Crawford collapsed and was taken to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, where he succumbed to his injuries.
“Doctors at CHOC discovered that much of Chance’s flesh was missing from his buttocks, leaving raw, gaping wounds, along with subdural hematoma, extreme brain swelling, and other injuries consistent with violent shaking," according to a release. “The little boy also had [a] healing fracture on his shoulder blade."
Love has pleaded not guilty and is currently being held without bail. He could face a maximum sentence of 32 years to life in prison, plus five more years.
"Words do not exist to describe the absolute terror this little boy was forced to endure – all at the hands of someone who was supposed to be protecting him, not torturing him to death," Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to raise money in support of the boy's family.
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