?How much is too much to allow a 2-year-old to live??
This was the question asked by Prince George County’s State Attorney Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) asked the jury in her opening statement.
?Is it $200? Is it $400? Is $600 the magic number?? she said.
It’s hard to believe a father would kill his child, not to mention her mother, because of child support. But on Tuesday, a jury convicted a Maryland man named Daron Boswell-Johnson on two counts of murder in the double killing.
Reports say not long after Boswell-Johnson became a father he took to the Internet posting questions that related to child support in hopes that other dad’s who had gone through it could help.
According to the Washington Post, in 2015 Boswell-Johnson’s posts asked, ?How can I stop child support?? ?How does the court know if child support is not paid?? he typed shortly after.
And in January 2016, he asked, ?What if I am behind on my child support??
It would only be a few weeks later that his paycheck would start seeing a $600 a month garnish. Soon after, in the early morning of Feb. 2, 2016, his daughter Chloe Davis-Green and her mother, NeShante Davis, were dead.
Many of us have seen or even been through the ugliness that comes with forced child support payments. Its such a shame and a tragedy that babies are so easily made, but when it comes to supporting them, there’s an issue.
I celebrate the men who step up, in spite of the hardships, and do their share of caring for the precious new life they helped bring into the world. There are men out there who actually insist on busting their ass to provide for their child. They are proud men and work hard to be great fathers.
But there is the ugly side. And unfortunately, this side is more prevalent; which is no surprise seeing as the economy is so wack and good-paying jobs are hard to find. People get frustrated, and even those who are working are many times doing so for low wages.
But to kill your child and its mother as a response is beyond reprehensible!
With no gun and no DNA evidence linking Boswell-Johnson to the murder scene, prosecutors relied on his videotaped confession to detectives, cellphone records, surveillance videos and notes he wrote to his loved ones before heading to jail.
?I know I failed you as a son,? he told his mother.
See a short video where Boswell-Johnson is being interviewed by cop.
?I?m not the monster they are making me seem to be,? he wrote to the mother of his other two children.
But then he was shown surveillance video of his SUV rolling out of his apartment complex that morning. He acquiesced, and told detectives he simply went to his daughter?s townhouse to see her off to school.
WP reports eventually, after hours of denials, Boswell-Johnson confessed, prosecutors said. He woke up in the early hours of Feb. 2 and drove to Fort Washington, parking his car down the street from Davis?s home, then sat on the steps two houses away waiting for Davis to emerge for work, detectives testified, describing Boswell-Johnson?s confession.
?I want to talk about child support,? Boswell-Johnson said to her, according to his recorded police interview.
When she refused to talk, he pulled a gun from his waistband and fired, he said in his confession. Davis was shot in the back and Chloe suffered two gunshot wounds, with the bullets piercing her car seat, according to expert testimony at trial.
The close-range gunfire was so violent, according to prosecutors, it blew Chloe out of her car seat and the beads out of her hair.
?He went there to terminate his child support,? Assistant State?s Attorney Joseph Ruddy said after showing jurors the bloodstained pink onesie Chloe was wearing the morning of the shooting. ?Chloe was a bill .?.?. a bill that he wasn?t going to pay.?
After the killing, Boswell-Johnson fled and went to work. Read more on the story here.
