Mother charged with throwing 3-year-old down stairs

YOUNGSTOWN — A 3-year-old South Side boy nodded “Yes” when asked by police if mommy threw him down a flight of steps.

The child’s mother’s roommate at 2025 E. Midlothian Boulevard told police she heard three loud bangs coming from upstairs late Thursday night and the boy shout: “Mommy don’t throw!” The roommate called the boy’s 23-year-old father, Jermaine Bell Sr., at his Brooklyn Avenue home and he met police at his son’s place.

When Patrolmen Jerry Fulmer and Brian Voitus arrived shortly past 11 p.m., an ambulance was already on scene. The officers found the child with a bloody lip, blood dripping from his mouth, severe laceration to the left side of his forehead, a deep gash on the right side of his forehead, a large swollen lump and bruises to the top, back and sides of his head, deep scratches on his neck and bruises and scratches to his arms and back. A neck brace was placed on the boy and he was put on a backboard for transport to St. Elizabeth Health Center.

The doctor who examined the 3-year-old boy told police that the marks on his face and forehead appear to be consistent with being beaten, possibly with a coat hanger or cord. His condition was initially stable but more tests were going to be done to determine the extent of injuries.

The mother, Arlecia Davis, 25, was arrested on charges of felony child abuse and misdemeanor domestic violence. She told police she is eight months’ pregnant with twins and would not fit in a cruiser so a transport wagon was summoned. Then she complained of stomach cramps so an ambulance was called to take her to the hospital. Once released, she will be arraigned in municipal court.

When interviewed at home prior to arrest, Davis gave this version of what happened to police: She said her son knows he’s not supposed to play with cleaning products but intentionally spilled Ajax cleaner on a small table in the upstairs hallway and she spanked him. He ran away, bumped into the hallway table and somehow bounced at least five feet backward to the stairwell and fell down the stairs.

Davis also told police that her son “is very clumsy and that is why he is always hurt.”

The child, though, when asked by the officers if he fell down the stairs shook his head from side to side to indicate “no.” He nodded up and down when asked if mommy threw him down the stairs, reports show.

At the hospital, a caseworker from the Mahoning County Children Services Bureau met with the boy’s father. The father signed the domestic violence form on his son’s behalf.