Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Barber Beat 6-Year-Old To Death With Lumber For Wetting Pants: DA

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Six-year-old Chance Crawford died this week after he was tortured by his babysitter, according to the Orange County District Attorney in California. Ernest Love, 41, faces several charges including murder and torture. Love was a barber who was babysitting Chance while his mother worked at a hospital. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy outlines the horrific case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’ve ever been injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/YouTubeTakeoverHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Kimberly Edds https://www.facebook.com/OCDAToddSpitzerAdante Pointer https://www.instagram.com/adante_pointer_esq/?hl=enCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. A six year old boy tortured and beaten to death with a piece of lumber. Prosecutors say this unbelievably heinous crime was all because Chance Crawford wet his pants. Now the man trusted to babysit little Chance is charged with murdering him, and the prosecutor is promising justice. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. This case is beyond disturbing. Chance Crawford was a six-year-old boy with a family who loved him.

They said he had a bright smile and that he lit up any room that he walked into. He loved watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sesame Street, and his family says he was smart and inquisitive and also a great artist. Chance should be here with his family, making them laugh and going to school with his little classmates in California. But Chance is dead. Orange County Prosecutor Todd Spitzer says a man who was trusted to babysit Chance murdered him by torturing him. The details of what I'm going to tell you are so disturbing, and I only share them because I think it's important for you to know what the prosecutor said happened to this little boy. And it sounds like this may not have been the first time that Chance was possibly abused. Last Friday, around 1.30 a.m., the DA said that Ernest Lamar Love, a 41-year-old man, took Chance to the emergency room instead of calling 911. Chance had been dropped off at Love's Barbershop in Placentia at 6.30 the evening before

so his mom could work the night shift at another hospital. It was Chance's third day of first grade. Less than three hours before Chance had been taken to the hospital, the DA says that surveillance videos showed Love walking into his barbershop with a piece of large lumber and Chance reluctantly following behind. Doctors at the hospital found that much of Chance's flesh was missing from his rear end and he had gaping wounds. There was extreme swelling and other injuries consistent with violent shaking and swelling. And the DA says Chance had a healing fracture on his shoulder blade, so possibly he had been

harmed before. The DA says after beating Chance with the lumber and pouring peroxide on his wounds, Love forced little Chance to do push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks, and then Chance collapsed. Doctors and nurses tried to save Chance, but they couldn't despite their best efforts. That beautiful little boy died this past Tuesday afternoon. He should be here. Kids wet their pants. It happens all of the time, and it's no big deal. What the district attorney has described is absolutely beyond words. Placentia Police Chief Brad Butts issued the following statement. Placentia Police Department detectives have been working nonstop with the DA's office investigating this case. We are appreciative of the collaborative effort to ensure that we serve as the voice for justice for Chance.

Our department is deeply saddened by this senseless act, and our thoughts are with all those grieving from this horrific crime. District Attorney Todd Spitzer wrote in a statement, While his new classmates were celebrating the end of the first week of first grade, Chance's seat in his classroom was empty as he fought for his life in a hospital bed. 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. Now we as prosecutors will do everything we can to pursue justice for little Chance and be his protectors in death that he failed to have in life. Ernest Lamar Love faces a felony count of murder and one felony count of torture and a felony count of child abuse causing death. He faces 32 years to life in prison if convicted of all of the charges.

And he had actually posted photos of Chance on his Instagram page. I'm going to tell you more about Chance later on in the show. I cover so many terribly sad cases here on Crime Fix, and I'm able to do that because of sponsors like Morgan & Morgan, and they're sponsoring today's Law & Crime YouTube Takeover. If you've seen our videos, you know the world. It can be a very scary place, and it's definitely not always safe. So if you're ever hurt, you may need a lawyer to help you. Morgan & Morgan has more than 1,000 attorneys that you may want in your corner. It's America's largest injury law firm, and for good reason. The firm wins a lot.

Just in the last few months, Morgan & Morgan has secured several multimillion-dollar verdicts that were considerably higher than the highest insurance company offer. From submitting a claim to uploading documents to signing contracts, all of this can be done from your smartphone in eight clicks or less. So if you're ever hurt, you can easily start a claim at ForThePeople.com slash YouTube Takeover. Kimberly Edds is the head of public affairs for the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Kimberly, thanks for coming on. This case is just simply unbelievable, these allegations and what Chance endured. The fact that you have a babysitter who was entrusted to watch over a six-year-old little boy who just started his first week of first grade, And then that week ended with him being brutally beaten with a piece

of lumber because he urinated himself at a park is just absolutely beyond horrific. It's honestly every working parents worst nightmare. Can you tell us anything about Chance's mother's reaction? I mean, I can't even, reaction just seems like such a cold word, but I can't imagine getting that phone call. She had dropped off Chance after his third day of first grade to the barbershop where his babysitter worked while she went to work as a nursing assistant at a nearby hospital and worked the night shift where the babysitter was supposed to be caring for Chance overnight until she returned to pick him up in the morning. I can't really get into her reaction.

It is an ongoing investigation regarding some of the details of what exactly happened. But it's just it's something that you would never, ever expect to happen. You would expect to expect that you would be able to pick up your little boy the next morning, just as you had other times in the past. Had she ever indicated that there had been an issue with Ernest Love as a babysitter before? I can't get into that. Right now, the charges are what the charges are. And he's facing, I think, 32 years to life in prison, plus five years of convicted. I mean, does the DA's office not see this as potentially a death penalty case?

It's still too early in the investigation to determine whether or not those charges will be elevated to a special circumstances murder. The charges that we file currently are felony murder, one count of torture, and then one count of child abuse resulting in death, which will result in a maximum sentence right now of 32 years to life, plus an additional five years in state prison. Felony prosecutors see awful, horrible things. And just reading about this brought tears to my eyes. It's unbelievable the allegations that you all are making and that what chance went through in this case. I just can't. It's unbelievable. The DA spoke about this

in his statement about how horrific this was. Can you elaborate on that? I mean, you have an instance where a defenseless six-year-old child was just so savagely beaten to the point that you have his flesh is literally falling off of his little body. And then to add to that, having hydrogen peroxide poured on his open wounds and then when he was taken to the hospital unconscious because the babysitter did not call 911 and instead put him in the car and took him to the hospital himself doctors found that he had been deprived of oxygen for about 15 minutes and his little brain didn't have any oxygen at all. And he had severe bleeding on the brain. He had a subdural hematoma and he had other injuries that were consistent with him being violently shaken, which resulted in his brain just not being able to survive such a savage

beating at the hand of someone who honestly was supposed to be protecting him. And I don't think this is just a case that just breaks the heart of every parent. I think this is a case that breaks the heart of every single human being who has an ounce of compassion and knows that children are supposed to be protected and not be subject to any kind of violence, much less a violence that is so severe that it killed a little tiny boy. Do you know how long this person, Ernest Love, had been babysitting Chance? Had this been an ongoing situation where he had been watching him? Our understanding is he had watched them previously, but I just don't know the length of time.

Is there anything else you can add? No, I just think this is a powerful reminder of that you really need to know who's around your children and make sure that your children are in the safest environment possible. I mean, this, you know, I mean, children, they do what they're told. They, I mean, I think one of the most disturbing things about this case right now is the fact that there's video that shows the little boy walking behind his babysitter who is carrying the piece of lumber and he's reluctantly walking behind him into the barber shop. And then, you know, a few hours later, he's being carried out after being beaten, having hydrogen peroxide poured on him and then being forced to do sit ups and push ups and jumping jacks to the point where he collapsed. I mean, it's just it's just such a haunting image and that you just can't get out of your head.

Kimberly Edds, thank you so much. Thank you. I wanted to tell you just a little bit more about Chance from his family from the GoFundMe page that they posted. They said that basically he was such a good artist that his pictures of his favorite character, Mickey Mouse, actually looked like they came from a Disney movie. They said that he was their shining star and he had so much more life to live. Adante Pointer was a criminal defense attorney for many years. He's now a civil rights attorney and he's based in California. Adante, this case, it's almost made me cry several times just reading through it. Your thoughts as an attorney? Well, you know, as an attorney, I see that this is a man, a monster

that needs to be held accountable for what he did to the fullest extent of the law. And it's the type of case as attorney you see, you just always come back to how it's so horrific that people can do these type of things to humans, to other people, to in particular, a kid, you know, an innocent child snatches innocence and frankly snatched his life. And so you could just, there's, there's a, there's a saying, there's a special place in hell for people who do things like this. And of course he has to be tried and convicted. And that's the process that he's looking at. And frankly, he should be held accountable through that process. It's unbelievable what the DA has described here. And yes, this man,

Ernest Love, is innocent until proven guilty. But the allegations here are so beyond the pale. I just can't even imagine this poor child enduring what he endured. And you talked about accountability. I can't imagine somebody going through with something like this, that what is described in the documents and in the DA's statement. You practice criminal defense. What drives somebody to do such a thing? You know, there's an ability to almost like disassociate yourself from the acts that you're committing and the idea that you're doing this upon a child. Clearly, he's having to ignore crying, screaming, pain, the injuries, the blood, just the brokenness of a kid.

You have to have an ability to just ignore all of those things and continue on with your attack and your onslaught. It's to the level that most, if anyone, just would not even be able to withstand after just a short while of witnessing it, not let alone to be the one inflicting such corporal punishment and essentially death upon an innocent child. It's just, as you said, beyond the pale of reason. But these are the facts that have to be proven. And when they're presented to a jury, you know, assuming that this is what they're able to prove up, and it sounds like the DA has a pretty strong case to be out in front, essentially making these announcements and to be presenting

these allegations to the public, it's going to be a hard road for this defendant to try to escape culpability and responsibility for his actions. Adante, I'm a mom. You're a father. And we cover these things, these cases, and some of them are so horrific. But this is truly one of the most horrific. And I feel like I've had to say this too many times that this is one of the most horrific things I've ever read about or seen. You know, how do we prevent this? Obviously, Little Chance's mother trusted this person to watch her son, to babysit him while she was working, trying to provide for her son. Yeah. This is one of those, as a parent, as a father, as someone whose kids are entrusted to me to take them back and forth, whether they're coming over to spend the night or we're going

out for some sort of activity, you would never lay your hand on another person's kid, let alone do something in this way. And for him to betray not only the trust of the mother, but also the kid and frankly of society, you know, you do not expect in your worst, most disgusting, if you will, dreams that something like this would occur to your child. And so I'm sure that mother has nothing, is wracked with nothing but pain and guilt, but guilt that she doesn't necessarily deserve, but guilt that any parent would feel because you weren't there to protect your son. You weren't there to protect your child. And so when people commit these types of crimes, it's not just the immediate victim who's affected. There's a ripple effect that goes through all the people who love that victim and that person who was killed. And in this situation, the ripple effect, as you just said,

it's affected us. And we didn't even know this family. We didn't know this kid. We didn't know this mother. But we do know what it is to act with decency and kindness towards a child. And this man turned into a tormentor. I mean, to beat a child with a piece of lumber to the point where they have gaping wounds and then just to pour hydrogen peroxide on it and think that this is going to go away. He had to step beyond his any type of sane thought to think that you could do this and get away with it. He has to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The allegations are sickening. Adante Pointer, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.