First came the broken bones. Then, the vomiting spells. Then, bruises and scrapes. At first, no one knew who or what kept sending little Ronnie Paris to the hospital. But by the time the 3-year-old died it was clear his life was far too short and none too sweet.
It became even clearer on Wednesday after a forensic pathologist detailed the results of an autopsy on the boy during his father’s murder trial. His face scarred and head bruised, signs of abuse were written all over the toddler’s body, said Hillsborough County associate medical examiner Dr. Sam Gulino.
“It’s my opinion that the injuries that caused his hospitalization on Jan. 22 and eventually his death occurred as a result of blunt head trauma,” Gulino said.
Prosecutor Jalal Harb argued Wednesday that the boy’s father, Ronnie B. Paris Jr., delivered the fatal blow. Paris, 21, was charged with murder and aggravated child abuse on Feb. 1. Wednesday marked the second full day of testimony in his trial.
Nysheerah Paris didn’t say anything about the beatings at first. She didn’t want to get in trouble. She wanted something good to happen, for her son to come back, for him to start breathing on his own. She wanted him to be “Little Ronnie” again – his father’s first and only son.
But 3-year-old Ronnie Paris didn’t come back that day, or the next. Instead, he died Jan. 28 after he was taken off life support at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
The boy’s death came a week after his father gave him the beating of his life, prosecutors say.
It has been five months since Ronnie B. Paris Jr. was charged with murdering his son. On Tuesday, the boy’s mother testified against him in court. She did not remember much about the six weeks she spent with her son after caseworkers moved the boy back to his parents’ home from foster care. But she said she remembered the day she saw Paris Jr., 21, beat her son to death.
“Ronnie came in the kitchen. He was upset, and he slammed the baby up against the wall,” Nysheerah Paris said.
The next day, the boy was acting strangely, she said.
The couple took him to a friend’s house for Bible study. The boy spent most of the day asleep on the couch. They had just ordered pizza for dinner when she noticed something was wrong with her son.
“We was quoting Scriptures and stuff, and I looked over at my baby and saw he wasn’t breathing,” she said.
Even though the boy would shake and wet himself, his father, Ronnie Paris Jr., would box with the 3-year-old, slapping him in the head until he cried because he didn’t want his son to grow up to be “a sissy,” the boy’s mother testified Monday.
Others corroborated Nysheerah Paris’ testimony as the prosecution built its case during the first day of the capital murder trial of Ronnie Paris Jr., 21, accused of abusing 3-year- old Ronnie Paris until the boy slipped into a coma Jan. 22.
He died six days later with swelling on both sides of his brain.
“He was trying to teach him how to fight,” said Shanita Powell, Nysheerah Paris’ sister. “He was concerned that the child might be gay.”
Ronnie Paris would shake, wet himself and vomit as his father forced him into a box and repeatedly slapped him on the head in an effort to prevent him from being gay, the child’s mother, Nysheerah Paris, testified Monday. The boy was 3 years old when he died from swelling on both sides of the brain on January 28.
……“He didn’t want him to be a sissy,” Shelton Bostic, the defendant’s Bible-study friend, testified.
It really is a very small step from legislating hatred and intolerance to eliminationism and murder.
The small step you mentioned is similar to the small steps we in public health talk about when it comes to multi-dimensional life outcomes from discrimination in its verbal or physical forms, like in-home mental/physical abuse causing higher prevalence of run-away episodes, crimes, school drop-out, less job initiation and retention, and of course depression and suicide. In a general sense, the link between a physically/mentally abusive parent–father or mother–and depression, suicide, etc. through the blame-and-shame game onto a gay son or daughter (either direct or indirect) isn’t too much of a logical leap. The interplay between the interpersonal (parent-and-child) and social relationships together make up the context of the 4 Pillars of Discrimination model I’m fleshing out. Although it has a predominantly social structure, it can be applied to the interpersonal as well.
I’m currently working on this outcome piece and will release it within another week on my site.