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I read about this and it's just all kinds of messed up.






24 Year-Old Mother of Eight Is Charged With Son's Killing

[Chicago] South Side mother accused of beating her 2-year-old son to death was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail Monday as new details emerged about her teen years as a state ward and young mother.

Lakeshia Murph, 24, became frustrated with the crying of her son Brandon Nelson-Murph and beat him with a belt and her fists until her hand hurt, prosecutors said Monday.

Brandon's father came home early Saturday, found the boy limp in bed and took him to a hospital, said Cook County Assistant State's Atty. LuAnn Snow.



Murph, a mother of eight, was charged Sunday with one count of first-degree murder.

As officials with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services probe the cause of Brandon's death, state documents reviewed by the Tribune show that the agency had contact with Murph dating to 1992, when at age 8 she became a ward of the state due to neglect by her mother.

Murph was placed in the care of her grandmother, spent some time in a group home, then returned to her grandmother in 1997.

That year, Murph had her first baby at age 13.

Murph gave birth to her second child in October 1998 and her third 10 months later in August 1999. That year, Murph moved to a DCFS shelter.

In 2000, Murph moved again to a parenting teen facility for state wards and had her fourth child.

Progress reports detail how Murph, still a teenager, tried to be a good mother while disappointed with her own.

Workers at the facility noted how Murph fed and bathed her children. She kept up with their medical care and vaccinations. She got them to day care on time.

"She feels that she is a better mother to her children than her mother was to her," they noted.

But workers worried for the young mother, who was still grappling with the pain of her own childhood. In July 2000, Murph told workers that she had a physical altercation with her mother during a visit.

"Despite her doing well with the kids, she seems to be depressed and has expressed concern over not being able to visit her family," workers said.

In 2002, Murph moved to a caseworker-supervised apartment and had her fifth child in September. In 2003 and 2004, Murph gave birth to two more children.

Her DCFS case automatically closed after she turned 21 in 2004. Murph later gave birth to Brandon.

In 2006, Murph approached DCFS for help with housing, utilities, food, counseling and parent training, said DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe.

After Brandon's death over the weekend, state investigators removed her children from the home and placed them in foster care.

Snow, the prosecutor, said Murph had been caring for her children Friday afternoon at her home in the 7800 block of South Carpenter Street when "she just loses it." Murph beat Brandon "about his head and body with her fists and a belt, causing severe bleeding to his brain," a court document said.

Snow said she did not know how many times the boy was struck but that "it was enough that [Murph's] hand became sore."

When Brandon fell unconscious, Murph put him in bed, Snow said. Brandon was not taken to a hospital until his father came home after midnight Friday and found the boy breathing unusually, Snow said.

The boy was taken to Children's Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

An autopsy Sunday determined that the boy suffered multiple blunt-force injuries due to child abuse, and his death was ruled a homicide, the medical examiner's office said.

Prosecutors said Murph gave a videotaped statement saying she killed the boy.