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Thursday, November 8, 2012

Amira Brown- 12 years old- Beaten to death

Amira Brown
 

 
Dec. 14, 1992 - Sept. 4, 2005
Reading, PA, USA

 
Baby Sitter, Rose M. Boyd-Tolver, Convicted of Killing 12-year-old Foster Child.
The 262-pound woman beat her while she was unconscious with a broom handle (more than 80 times she struck her) then sat on her, smothering her to death.

Rose M. Boyd-Tolver, who was described during her trial as being mildly mentally retarded, was convicted in a November jury trial of firstdegree murder in the death of Amira Brown.

Boyd-Tolver, who out weighed
Amira Brown
by about 160 pounds when she asphyxiated her by sitting on her because Boyd-Tolver says Amira called her a bad name, was sentenced by Berks County Court to life in prison.
 
 
 
Death of city girl is ruled homicideThe 12-year-old, who was in foster care, was beaten before she was found unconscious in her bedroom, officials say.
2005 Reading Eagle Company - Source: Reading Eagle


A 12-year-old Reading girl who died in September was beaten with a broomstick shortly before she died, officials said Thursday. On Thursday, Dr. Nicholas Bybel, Berks County coroner, ruled the death of Amira Brown a homicide.
 
Brown, a seventh-grader at Southwest Middle School, was dead on arrival in Reading Hospital on Sept. 4.
 
She had been found unconscious in her residence at 630 Summit Ave., where she was in foster care. Brown had suffered cardio-respiratory collapse caused by a beating and physical restraint, according to Bybel, who declined to elaborate.

Months of medical testing were needed before the ruling was made, officials said. No charges have been filed. The investigation continues.

Police will confer with District Attorney Mark C. Baldwin next week about possible criminal charges, said Capt. Francis F. Drexler of the Reading police criminal investigations division.

“The investigation has been extensive since she was found,” he said. “We had treated it as a suspicious death from the beginning. We’d been waiting for the cause of death before taking the next step.”

Brown’s foster mother, Barbara Martin, found the girl lying face up on the floor beside her bed about 7 p.m., police said.

Martin said Thursday that she was not home when Brown was beaten.

Another adult was in the house, according to police and Martin, but they would not elaborate.

Brown was hit three times in the head with the broomstick, according to sources.

She then went to her bedroom, where the unidentified adult checked on her a few minutes later and saw her alive, sources said.

Martin said she came home, went to the bedroom a short time later to give Brown prescription medication and found her unconscious.

Police declined to provide further details of the crime. Sources said Brown had an extensive psychiatric history.
 
Recently, she had been prescribed therapeutic medications, they said. She also was prone to physical and verbal outbursts, the sources also said.
 
Pennsylvania Mentor, a private foster-care placement agency in Wescosville, Lehigh County, placed Brown with Martin on Jan. 14, Martin said. “There is no comment on that,” said a woman who answered the phone at the agency’s office Thursday. “That’s it. End of story.” She would not identify herself.
 
Pennsylvania Mentor is a division of National Mentor Healthcare Inc. David Buckley, Pennsylvania Mentor’s state director, could not be reached for comment.

Previously, he called the death a tragedy. Martin said she was sad about Brown’s death. “It’s a big tragedy to me,” she said. “We were very close.” Martin said she and Brown shopped and did other things together.
 
Martin also said Brown got along with her three children, 14, 10 and 4 years old. She did not provide the names of her children.
 
Martin said she has had no desire to have foster children since Brown’s death.
 
The slaying was the 24th in the city and the 25th overall in the county.
 
 
 
A QUICK CONVICTION . . .November 17, 2006 - Source: Reading Eagle


Barbara Martin and Rose Boyd-Tolver were close friends.
They moved to Reading from New York because the housing was more affordable in Reading.
Martin has a job taking care of a foster child - Amira Brown.
She was receiving $2,000 a month for it.
Boyd-Tolver wanted to get her own foster child. She also wanted the $2,000 a month.
The friends were both assistant certified nurses.
The enjoyed eating and talking about their weight problems.
That's what the testimony disclosed in the Berks County Court first-degree murder trial of Boyd-Tolver.
Two psychiatrists, Dr. Larry Rotenberg of Reading and Dr. Timothy Michals of Philadelphia, agreed that Boyd-Tolver was mildly mentally retarded.
Michals said she had an IQ of 66.
So why did Barbara Martin leave the child with Boyd-Tolver?
That's the question lawyers representing the child's grandmother, Josephine Sharp, have asked in their lawsuit seeking compensation from the child foster agency, Pennsylvania Mentors.
She is seeking more than $100,000 from the agency in the lawsuit filed in Philadelphia County Court.
The jury agreed with DA Mark Baldwin who said the mental retardation is not a reason to excuse the defendant for her actions.
The jury convicted Boyd-Tolver of first-degree murder following a relatively quick two hours of deliberations.
"This child was beaten while she was unconscious," Baldwin said. "She was beaten from head to toe."
Boyd-Tolver hit the child 80 times with a mop handle before sitting on the child, the medical officials said.
That's a painful death.
DA Baldwin asked the jury: "Is the mop handle a deadly weapon? We submit it is."
Baldwin then said: "The child's life was literally crushed."
Baldwin said Boyd-Tolver was hoping Barbara Martin would help her get back her own child, who was living in New York with her ex-husband.
However, Baldwin said, Martin was unable to do it because she was so busy taking care of Brown and her own children.
"Brown was in her way of getting her own child back," Baldwin said. "She (Boyd-Tolver) wanted her dead."
Boyd-Tolver's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Craig S. Snyder, said Boyd-Tolver did not have the intent to kill and should be convicted only of third-degree murder.
This was a sad case all around.
I can't even imagine what it would be like to be hit 80 times with a mop handle and then sat on by someone more than twice my weight.
The victim's grandmother, Josephine Sharp, who was present for the trial, declined to comment after the verdict.
Judge James M. Bucci scheduled sentencing in February.
 
 
Woman gets life sentence for killing 12-year-oldFebruary 2, 2007 - Source: Reading Eagle


Rose M. Boyd-Tolver of Reading, who was described at her trial as being mildly retarded, beat the child with a mop handle more than 80 times

A 41-year-old Reading woman who beat, sat on and killed a 12-year-old child she outweighed by about 160 pounds was sentenced Thursday in Berks County Court to life in prison.

Rose M. Boyd-Tolver of the 700 block of McKnight Street, who was described during her trial as being mildly mentally retarded, was convicted in a November jury trial of firstdegree murder in the death of Amira Brown.

According to testimony, Boyd-Tolver struck the child at least 80 times with a mop handle in a downstairs kitchen in the home of the child's foster parent Sept 4, 2005. She then hit Brown again upstairs before sitting on the child and killing her, witnesses testified.

Boyd-Tolver weighed about 280 pounds, and Brown weighed about 120 pounds, according to testimony.

Boyd-Tolver was baby-sitting the child, who was under the care of Barbara Martin in Martin's home at 630 Summit Ave.

Brown's grandmother, Josephine Sharp of Easton, Northampton County, told Judge James M. Bucci that Brown enjoyed styling her dolls' hair and dreamed of becoming a beautician.

"Now we will never know what her aspirations and potential could have been," Sharp said. "I went to grief therapy for weeks to try to understand why anyone would beat a child to death and not even bat an eyelash.

"I experienced nightmares and visions of Amira lying in her coffin, which to this day still haunts me. I've cried many days and nights, especially during the holidays."

Perhaps spending the rest of her life in jail will convince Boyd-Tolver that she must forever live with the memory of the murder, Sharp said.

District Attorney Mark C. Baldwin gave Bucci a letter expressing similar sentiments from Brown's mother, Janeen Sharp of Philadelphia, who could not attend the sentencing.

Life in prison is an appropriate sentence because medical evidence showed Boyd-Tolver continued to beat Brown after the girl was unconscious, Baldwin said.

"You always wonder why," he said. "The pictures in this case were particularly haunting: Eighty separate blows to this child's body. The brutality, the number of blows show what this defendant did. She had no remorse.

"She will die in prison, but the memory of Amira will live on. I can't imagine what the family is going through. Hopefully, a life sentence for this defendant will be some comfort and close the wound."

Boyd-Tolver's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Craig S. Snyder, asked that no extra time be added to the life sentence for related offenses.

"The mitigating factor remains the mental state of my client," he said, referring to testimony that showed Boyd-Tolver is mentally ill and mildly retarded. When Bucci asked Boyd-Tolver if she had anything to say, she replied, "I apologize to the family." Bucci said Boyd-Tolver demonstrated a vicious propensity for cruelty. "This is a horrible crime, and I certainly take into consideration the pain and the longlasting emotional and mental anguish that her family, her grandmother, her mother, her friends and loved ones will suffer as a result of this. "I believe the sentence fits the crime."
 
 
 

1 comment:

  1. I really mis Amira Brown I can't even deal with life as much since her death. I will always remember you in my heart. I've since worked in law enforcement since your death. I will always love you

    ReplyDelete