GUILTY MI - Kharisma Richardson, 4, beaten to death, Kalamazoo, 26 March 2016

The child was found unresponsive in a home in the 1100 block of Douglas Avenue around 9:30 Saturday morning, according to a release from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.
She was pronounced dead at the scene on the same day that would've been the girl's 4th birthday, according to police.
No suspects or arrests have been announced.
Police are treating the girl's death as suspicious and are not revealing any other information.

Click to expand...

The 4-year-old girl who died over the weekend has been identified by Kalamazoo police as Kharisma Richardson.
...
Richardson was found unresponsive in a home in the 1100 block of Douglas Avenue at about 9:30 a.m. Saturday. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
...
Kalamazoo Public Safety Capt. Victor Ledbetter said evidence at the scene indicates she did not die of natural causes. Her death is being investigated as suspicious.
Ledbetter says Richardson's mother called 911. The girl's three other young siblings were home at the time.

Click to expand...

A source with knowledge of the investigation told 24 Hour News 8 that the girl was found in a bedroom and had marks on her body that made officers suspect she may have been the victim of abuse.
Police took the child’s mother in for questioning as part of the investigation. There were other children living in the home as well.

Click to expand...

Police in Kalamazoo have ruled out natural causes in the death of a 4-year-old girl who died in her home Saturday. Now the focus is on determining what did cause her death.
“We know that it’s not natural causes,” Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Capt. Vic Ledbetter told 24 Hour News 8 on Monday, though he wouldn’t elaborate on how investigators reached that conclusion. “We’re waiting on an autopsy to actually define what it was. … If anyone has any information, please call us.”
...
The girl’s 25-year-old mother was arrested shortly after her daughter’s death on old charges unrelated to the death.
...
Police have been involved with domestic violence matters surrounding the family in the past, a source told 24 Hour News 8. Children’s Protective Services was contacted on more than one occasion. None of the domestic violence incidents involved injury to any children.
The other children who lived in the home are being cared for by other family members as their mother remained locked up.
An abuse-neglect case was opened Monday regarding the surviving children in light of Kharisma’s death. Information on what, if any, action the petitioner (likely CPS) requested of the court was not immediately available.

Click to expand...

On Tuesday, Kharisma's mother, Daveeta Walker, spoke to Newschannel 3 about the ongoing investigation.
Walker says she has no idea how Kharisma died, and is now trying to cope with her death after spending the last four days in jail.
...
Walker says she went to wake her daughter up to say happy birthday.
"I just woke up and she was dead. I went to pick her up and she was stiff. I just laid her back down and called police," Walker said.
Walker says the girl seemed fine when she put her to bed the night before, and tells us the only other people in the home were her three other kids, all under the age of six.
...
Walker was arrested not long after on several outstanding warrants and was finally released Tuesday afternoon.
...
Walker tells us she did not see any strange marks or injuries on Kharisma's body.
<modsnip>

Click to expand...

The mother of the 4-year-old Kalamazoo girl who was found dead on Saturday has been temporarily relieved of custody of her other children after it was revealed in court that Kharisma Richardson had been abused before her death.
Court documents revealed that the toddler had been punched, beaten with a belt and suffered burn injuries. It was alleged by Child Protective Services during the preliminary custody hearing that Daveeta Walker told police that she considered it corporal punishment.
CPS is asking the court that Walker be stripped of her parental rights. Future hearings will be scheduled to determine permanent custody.[/h]WWMT-TV reports that a child abuse charge had been submitted to the prosecutor's office, but Assistant Prosecutor Carrie Klein said it was denied pending the outcome of the autopsy.
No direct charges have been filed for the death of the child so far.

Click to expand...

A girl who died in her home on her fourth birthday was subjected to corporal punishment by her mother and had burns on her ankles and the tops of her feet when police found her last week, according to court documents.
...
On Wednesday, a Child Protective Services worker filed a petition in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Family Division to have Kharisma's three brothers, ages 2, 5 and 6, removed from the custody of their mother, Daveeta Lee Walker. The petition was authorized Wednesday by a family court referee.
According to the petition, Walker admitted to CPS investigators that Kharisma "could have died as a result of the corporal punishment that she inflicted to her."

<modsnip>

Click to expand...

Gruesome details were revealed in court, regarding what happened hours before 4-year old Kharisma Richardson was found dead in her north Kalamazoo home.
...
Child Protective Services revealed Wednesday that 4-year-old Kharisma was beaten with a belt, punched in the face and chest, and suffered burns so badly her feet and hands had blisters.

Click to expand...

A state worker testified that Daveeta Walker beat her daughter, Kharisma Richardson, with a belt hours before she was found dead.
...
"She used a belt, and admitted to punching her with her fists in her chest and her back. There were also burns on the child," said Julie Grant with Child Protective Services, confirming that Walker had admitted to repeatedly whipping the girl.
A CPS worker told a judge Walker hit her daughter repeatedly, who wasn't behaving on more than one occasion.
"We are talking about a very extreme and tragic situation that was beyond just simple, we need to intervene in these things a lot sooner," said Sally Reames, the Executive Director of theCommunity Healing Center. "Are there bruises grouped together? In unusual places? Where it's not from a child falling down."
...
The Kalamazoo Department of Public Services say it will take 6 to 8 weeks for the autopsy results to come back.

Click to expand...

Exactly how and when 4-year-old Kharisma Richardson died is still unclear, despite the bruises, burns and obvious signs of trauma that marked her body.
Even how she spent her final hours is unclear, with conflicting accounts provided to investigators by her mother, the cousin who babysat her the evening before, and her young siblings who were at home when she died. A police report released Friday, April 1, calls her mother, Daveeta Walker, the "primary suspect" in Kharisma's suspicious death.
...
Kharisma Richardson was declared dead at 9:58 a.m, on the morning of her fourth birthday, after only a brief attempt to resuscitate her. Kharisma was found face down on a thick white comforter, clothed in a t-shirt and leggings, the police report says. <modsnip>

Click to expand...

The hearing was to determine if Daveeta Walker was fit to care for her children, but what was revealed in court that left everyone speechless.
Daveeta Walker sat in this courtroom unemotional, listening on as Child Protective Services revealed what they say Kharisma Richardson endured in the final hours of her short life.
...
"Did mother give reasons why she punched the little girl in the stomach and chest?" Grant [Julie Grant with Child Protective Services] was asked.
"It was a form of discipline and for the same reasons, 'she was mouthing off,'" she replied.
...
CPS said Walker's explanation for the injuries was punishment for stealing food and grabbing a bottle she was not supposed to have.

Click to expand...

While police questioned Walker at the scene about what had happened, she was busy on her phone, talking and sending and receiving text messages, according to the report.

The girl's brother and half brothers were the only other people in the apartment that morning. Boys ages 2,5 and 6, were found in an adjacent bedroom, watching a pornographic movie on television, the report says, prompting a public safety officer to pull the plug on the television set.

Click to expand...

Annie1004 said:

Why oh why did CPS not step in earlier? The other kids were watching *advertiser censored* while mom was on her cell phone. And we wonder why there are so many screwed up teens and adults. These kids didn't have a chance. I am sure they were also abused by that monster. Sickening beyond belief.

Click to expand...