A 4-year-old boy who was found badly beaten and burned in a Midtown Manhattan apartment on Wednesday endured a life of instability and abuse until his death.
New York City Police discovered Myls Dobson unconscious in the bathtub of his father's girlfriend's apartment. The 4-year-old was transferred to Roosevelt Hospital, where he later died.
The child's mother, Ashley Marie Dobson, father, Okee Wade and his girlfriend Kryzie King had all been previously convicted on a range of charges, including rape and assault, according to a report by DNAinfo New York.
Ashley Dobson was caught abusing Myls in South Carolina and New York City, resulting in her loss of custody over the child in 2011.The Administration for Children's Services turned Myls over to his father, despite Wade's history of convictions for robbery and rape. Myls remained in Wade's care until Dec. 18, 2013, after he was arrested for not showing up in court. The child was left with Wade's girlfriend, 27-year-old King, a transgender performer who lived in the apartment where Myls was found dead, DNAinfo reported.
Police told DNAinfo that King, who also was known as Janaie Jones, admitted she'd disciplined the child physically in the past, beating him with belts and hangers, in addition to locking him in a bathroom for hours.
When NYPD found Myls in the bathtub on Wednesday, he had cigarette burns on his entire body, with cuts and wounds on his legs, genitals and arms.
"This is a tragic, tragic death of that young boy," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton told DNAinfo this week. "Horrific injuries sustained over a period of days."
DNAinfo reported that King was charged with reckless endangerment and assault, Thursday night.
Myls' father, who is currently incarcerated in New Jersey, was alerted of his child's death on Wednesday night. He is serving time for not attending a court date, but has been charged in the past for armed robbery, rape and a bank fraud scheme in which he and 22 others stole more than $250,000 from JPMorgan Chase accounts.
Ashley said in a 2012 incident that she'd abused the boy, slapping him with a closed fist when she got angry.
Police were called to a Walterboro, S.C. hospital after a nurse discovered cuts all over the boy's body. Ashley explained that her son had run into traffic, and after she jumped on him and grabbed hold, she punched him.
"The suspect admitted that sometimes she just snaps and gets angry, but she does not mean to hurt the child," the officer wrote in the report.
Wade's sister Orquidia said Ashley was very violent.
"She would punch him and she would slap him," Orquidia stated, in reference to the child. "She's not a person to have children."
But according to CBS, the mother was grieving on Thursday, mourning the death of her son.
"This family is distraught, the mother is in extreme pain, as she was working very hard to get her life together so as to once again gain custody of her son and raise him," attorney Philip Lights wrote in a statement. "...Now, she can't do that."
Ashley is scheduled to make a public statement, Friday.
