Palmdale father charged with murder in death of 3-week-old son
Palmdale father charged with murder in death of 3-week-old son 01:11
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed murder charges against a Palmdale man on Wednesday in the death of his 3-week-old son.
“We offer our deepest condolences to the family of this innocent child and support in the face of this senseless violence,” District Attorney George Gascón said. “Child abuse has no place in our society and these acts of violence are outrageous. Children are some of the most vulnerable people in our society and every child deserves safety and protection as a human right.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the boy, named Baki, was last seen by his father, Yusuf DeWees, 24. The Ogden Police Department arrested DeWees and the boy’s mother on unrelated charges in Utah.
The district attorney alleged that Dewees killed her son on May 2 or 3. Police thoroughly searched a local landfill, but investigators never found Baki’s body.
Nonetheless, the prosecution accused Deweys
one count of murder, one count of assault on a child resulting in death, and one count of child abuse in circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death.
If convicted as charged, the maximum sentence is life in state prison.
The baby’s great-grandmother said the baby had recently been living with two of his three siblings at his grandmother’s daughter’s Palmdale home.
Prosecutors recommended Dewees be held in lieu of $2 million bail.
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Matthew Rodriguez