Bernard James Revell
7-year-old
July 6, 2012
Brooklyn, NY
Beaten with a Hammer
Tenika Revell, from New York, has been charged with beating her son, Bernard James Revell, 7, to death with a hammer, because she didn’t want to anyone else to raise him after her death. When dropping appliances into his bathwater didn’t work, Tenika Revell, 40, beat her son Bernard with a hammer, choked him with her hands, plastic bag and a belt in their Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment. The mother, dying of breast cancer, tried to kill herself by taking pills after brutally murdering her son. Tenika was ordered to undergo a psychiatric exam and is due back in court next month.
Heartbroken boyfriend says Brooklyn mother didn't want anyone else to raise her 7-year-old son, so that's why she killed him
Tenika Revell charged with beating her son Bernard to death with a hammer. Terrace Johnson says Revell believes she is dying from breast cancer.
By Barry Paddock / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, July 8, 2012, 11:00 PM
The monster mom who beat her 7-year-old son to death believes she is dying from breast cancer — and didn’t want anyone else to raise her boy, according to her longtime boyfriend.“She loved him so much she didn’t want nobody else to have him,” Terrace Johnson said of his longtime girlfriend Tenika Revell, who killed her son Bernard — bashing his head with a hammer — Friday in their Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment. She took pills to try and kill herself, but survived.
“She didn’t want her mother or none of them to get Bernard.”
Johnson, a newspaper deliveryman, met Revell when Bernard was an infant.
“I raised him,” he told the Daily News before showing off Father’s Day cards from the doomed boy. “She took my boy away from me.”
About a year after they got together, Revell’s angry side began to emerge, he said. She had done two stints in prison before meeting him after being convicted of attempted robbery and attempted burglary.
“I just took the bitter with the sweet,” Johnson said. “I took a gamble.”
Revell, 40, took medication for anger management, Johnson said. But her mental health declined rapidly after getting pregnant with his child last year, then having to abort the pregnancy because of her spreading cancer.
“That’s when she started really going downhill,” Johnson said. He speculates Revell may have resumed her crack habit, but insists she was a good mother to Bernard, her only child. He would scold her for buying the boy video games and scooters when she couldn’t pay the bills.
“She’d spoil him rotten,” Johnson said. “She went all out.”
But he admits she was erratic.
“She never hit this kid,” he said. “She’d curse at him and yell at him.”
Johnson spoke to Revell on the phone the day she killed her child. “She told me, ‘It’s hot, I’m not going outside. Me and Bernard are going to stay inside,’” he recalled.
He called later in the day, but no one picked up. “She wouldn’t answer the phone,” he said. “That was strange.”
She called him back about 8:15 p.m. He noticed she was breathing heavily. He asked to chat with the boy and she said he was sleeping. “He’s very energetic,” Johnson said. “He’s not one to be sleeping all the time.”
When he asked more questions, she grew angry and hung up on him.
Later, he would learn that she had already confessed the crime to her mother in Florida. “Tenika called her mother around 7:30 and told her mother that she killed Bernard and was on her way to killing herself,” Johnson said.
Revell called 911 and calmly confessed just before 11 p.m. Friday, cops said. Johnson didn’t know the boy was dead until the next morning, when he came to visit and saw the news cameras and police tape.
Revell, facing charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child, was awaiting arraignment while continuing to be treated at Woodhull Hospital Sunday.
“She took his life,” Johnson said.
“She’s got to live with that for the rest of her life.”
‘Dying’ Mom Allegedly Kills Son, 7, Because She Wanted No One Else To Raise Him"
Brooklyn mom Tenika Revell has been charged with beating her 7-year-old son, Bernard James Revell (pictured), to death with a hammer because she believes she is dying and didn’t want anyone else to raise him after her death, the New York Daily News reports.
Tenika’s longtime boyfriend, Terrance Johnson, believes she killed her only child because she believed she is dying from cancer.
“She loved him so much she didn’t want nobody else to have him,” Terrace Johnson said of his longtime girlfriend Tenika Revell, who killed her son Bernard — bashing his head with a hammer — Friday in their Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment. She took pills to try and kill herself, but survived.
“She didn’t want her mother or none of them to get Bernard.”
The Tenika, who completed two stints in prison on burglary and robbery charges, was dealing with a number of mental health issues before killing Bernard. Johnson said she also had an “angry side.” But he insists that she showed all of the signs of a good mother. Johnson says that she would buy toys for the boy, even when she couldn’t pay other bills.
Johnson spoke to Tenika on the day that she reportedly killed the boy and says her behavior was suspicious. At first, she told him that she and Bernard were staying inside because of the heat. But later phone calls raised his eyebrows.
The Daily News has more:
He called later in the day, but no one picked up. “She wouldn’t answer the phone,” he said. “That was strange.”The mother has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child. She is being treated at a New York City hospital and awaiting arraignment.
She called him back about 8:15 p.m. He noticed she was breathing heavily. He asked to chat with the boy and she said he was sleeping. “He’s very energetic,” Johnson said. “He’s not one to be sleeping all the time.”
When he asked more questions, she grew angry and hung up on him.
Later, he would learn that she had already confessed the crime to her mother in Florida. “Tenika called her mother around 7:30 and told her mother that she killed Bernard and was on her way to killing herself,” Johnson said.
Revell called 911 and calmly confessed just before 11 p.m. Friday, cops said. Johnson didn’t know the boy was dead until the next morning, when he came to visit and saw the news cameras and police tape.
“She took his life,” Johnson said. “She’s got to live with that for the rest of her life.”
Killer ma tried electrocution first, say cops
The fatal beating endured by a 7-year-old Brooklyn boy was his cancer-stricken mother’s backup plan after an attempt to electrocute him failed, police sources said.
When dropping appliances into his bathwater didn’t work, Tenika Revell, 40, beat her son Bernard with a hammer and choked him with her hands and belt in their Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment on Friday.
Revell, who is charged with murder, killed the boy in a desperate bid to spare him the tough life she has endured since being dumped in the streets at about the same age, her lawyer says.
She called 911 and told the dispatcher she had killed her child and taken pills in a failed bid to end her own life.
Her neighbors were stunned, describing her as a doting mom who referred to Bernard as “Little B.”
Police sources said Revell had at least 33 prior arrests, including several for prostitution. Revell, who used several aliases, served two separate stints in prison after being convicted of attempted robbery and attempted burglary, records show.
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