FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Brooklyn Man Indicted for Murder of Four-Year-Old Boy
Cause of Death was Battered Child Syndrome, Blunt Force Injury to Torso
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a Brooklyn man has been arraigned on an indictment in which he is charged with murder, manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly causing the death of his girlfriend’s four-year-old son, Jayce Eubanks. An autopsy determined that the child had numerous old and new injuries about his body and suffered from battered child syndrome.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “The autopsy of this helpless child revealed that he suffered unthinkable abuse in his short life and ultimately died, allegedly at the hands of this defendant, who we will now seek to hold accountable. I am committed to doing everything possible to protect children in our communities and to bring cowardly child abusers to justice.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Jerimiah Johnson, 27, of East New York, Brooklyn. He was arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Donald Leo on an indictment in which he is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree manslaughter and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. He was ordered held without bail and to return to court on November 18, 2021. The defendant faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted of the top count.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on September 12, 2021, at approximately 5:30 a.m., inside the child’s home, located on Baltic Street in the Gowanus Houses, in Brooklyn, his mother, Rickia Delvalle, was awakened by the defendant, who was holding Jayce in his arms and who stated that the child was not breathing. The mother observed that the child was foaming at the mouth and his stomach was hard and swollen.
Jayce was taken to Brooklyn Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead at approximately 6:54 a.m.
An autopsy performed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that Jayce had several old and new injuries, including multiple bruises and abrasions to his body, limbs, back, chest and abdomen; a healing skull fracture, bite marks on both ears, multiple healing and recent rib fractures on both sides of the chest, trauma to the stomach causing it to perforate, causing bleeding into the gastrointestinal tract and abdominal cavity, and that the cause of death was battered child syndrome with recent blunt force injuries of the torso.
The case is being prosecuted by First Deputy Bureau Chief Frank DeGaetano and Assistant District Attorney Christopher Mirabella, of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, under the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory, Bureau Chief.
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An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt