John Jefferson
Left: Valeria Hamilton (Detroit Police Department). Center: Ethan Belcher (obituary). Right: Shane Shelton (Detroit Police Department).
A Detroit, Michigan, mother and stepfather were found guilty this week of torturing and murdering a 5-year-old boy and beating his 3-year-old brother after damning texts and horrific evidence of the abuse made jurors cry on a daily basis.
The guilty verdicts against 29-year-old Valeria Hamilton and 29-year-old Shane Shelton came down swiftly Wednesday, according to the Detroit News.
In January 2023, Wayne County prosecutors announced the arrests of Shelton and Hamilton, revealing that Ethan Belcher was tortured to death at a home where other children also lived.
The Detroit Police Department responded to a 911 call on the afternoon of Jan. 22, 2023, a Sunday, to the Spring Garden Street residence where Ethan was murdered.
An an arraignment, prosecutor Matthew Makepeace told the court that Ethan had loop-shaped abrasions covering his body, indicating that he had been beaten with a cord-like object, according to the newspaper.
The prosecutor also said the child had been suffering from gangrene on one of his toes and that other children living in the house told investigators that Shelton and Hamilton regularly beat Ethan and his brother. They would also lock the two in the basement, which was reportedly filled feces and sewage.
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Ethan’s aunt Ashley Belcher told local NBC affiliate WDIV that she reported the abuse to Child Protective Services the year prior to her loved one’s death, but the children remained with Hamilton and Shelton following an investigation. She also said that Ethan had been burned with cigarettes.
“He has over 100 cigarette burns on his body, he had frostbitten feet, and he was missing a toe that never was taken care of,” Belcher said.
In a later interview, Belcher cried when she was informed of WDIV reporting on just how many other similarly situated children in the state likely died from abuse and neglect in 2020 and 2021.
(WDIV)
At the start of the case, Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Kym Worthy called the details of the abuse “extremely alarming” and said that would be proven in court.
At trial, tearful jurors saw evidence that Ethan Belcher was beaten with a pipe, a fly swatter, and a belt, and was subjected to a freezing basement, leaving him with shocking injuries all over his body that he did not survive, the Detroit News reported.
Child victim testimonies reportedly assigned blame for the abuse to both parents, and text evidence between the two was damning.
In one, Hamilton told Shelton “If I try to whoop their a—- I will LEGIT KILL THEM and then I’ll go to f—ing jail” before she knowingly used cold water to abuse her kids in the basement with freezing temperatures, the report said. The report added that prosecutors even played video of Hamilton telling Ethan on one occasion “I’m tired of you. You’re never coming up [from the basement].”
In another text to Shelton, the mother reportedly said, “F— it. I beat the dog s— out of them.”
Now both Hamilton and Shelton are looking at the prospect of life behind bars.
Ethan’s extended family members have long said that “multiple CPS reports” were made “over the years,” and yet “each time, the children were allowed right back into this abusive and neglectful home.”
An obituary said the boy was survived by three brothers.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
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