Lawrence+King

=** Child killed by stepdad **= Radio drowned out fatal beatingMother left room while stepdad punished boy, 4Saturday, March 20, 2010 2:53 AMBY THE COLUMBUS DISPATCHFRED SQUILLANTE | DISPATCH PHOTO**Wearing a padded suit for inmates on suicide watch, John Reeves weeps as the circumstances surrounding the death of his stepson, Lawrence King III, 4, are read in court.** | **Lori N. Jones, left, is comforted by a friend after the arraignment of John Reeves in the death of her grandson.**
 * [[image:http://www.dispatch.com/wwwexportcontent/sites/dispatch/local_news/stories/2010/03/20/reeves-art-grs7u60e-1childdies.jpg height="144" caption="Lawrence King III"]] ||
 * Lawrence King III ||
 * [[image:http://www.dispatch.com/wwwexportcontent/sites/dispatch/local_news/stories/2010/03/20/reeves-art0-gpg7u279-1nikki-reeves-1.jpg height="131" caption="Nikkie Reeves"]] ||
 * Nikkie Reeves ||


 * [|Click here]to read the Court Arraignment document presented by Columbus police on the case [pdf]

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To drown out the sound of the fatal beating that her 4-year-old son was getting, Nikkie Reeves told police she turned up the radio. The death of Lawrence King III came after an assault administered so violently by his stepfather that the boy was battered and bruised from his head to his knees, Columbus police said in court documents filed in the case yesterday. John Reeves, 29, is now charged with aggravated murder and child endangering and is being held without bond in the Franklin County jail. Reeves, who sobbed during his Municipal Court appearance, denied a vicious assault in an interview with police, telling detectives only that he disciplined his stepson for being "disrespectful." Nikkie Reeves, 23, is due to appear in Municipal Court this morning on a child-endangering charge. Police say she allowed the abuse to occur. They said Nikkie Reeves told them she asked her husband to stop hurting Lawrence, but was told to go into a bedroom and shut up. She said she heard her son being thrown against a wall, then later saw him convulsing. "Nikkie stated at one point Lawrence hit his head and started shaking," police said. She said she stayed in the bedroom with her three younger children, turning up the radio so they wouldn't hear the violence in their Far East Side town house Wednesday evening. As those details surfaced, relatives of the boy's biological father criticized a court decision that returned custody to his mother and stepfather three weeks ago. His paternal grandmother, Lori N. Jones, who mostly had raised Lawrence, was at court yesterday and said, "I wanted to hide him somewhere because I knew something was going to happen." Columbus police said Lawrence, who was described as developmentally disabled, was beaten, lashed with a leather belt and tossed against the wall and an entertainment center by John Reeves about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at their home at 6443 Mount Badon Rd. Police say the couple didn't call for help until more than four hours later, first trying to revive the boy in cold water. Lawrence was pronounced dead at Nationwide Children's Hospital at 12:54 a.m. Thursday, about 50 minutes after his mother and stepfather called 911. "You have a lot of detecting to do for this little guy," a trauma doctor, described by police as "visibly upset," told arriving homicide detectives. Police said they quickly debunked the couple's claims that the boy had been injured elsewhere, leading Nikkie Reeves to admit that she'd witnessed her husband's assault on Lawrence. She said she had lied because she was afraid of what her husband would do to her. "Nikkie stated this was not the first beating this week and several others had occurred since Lawrence's return to them on Feb. 26," the police documents said. Police said John Reeves admitted to disciplining the boy because of "disrespectful and bad behavior," explaining that the boy wouldn't help with housework. He said the boy fell and hit his head while standing in a corner for punishment, which included lashes with a belt. Three other children were in the house when the assault occurred. They are now with the Rev. Michael Reeves, John Reeves' father. The Rev. Reeves told police that Lawrence seemed sad during a recent visit, telling him that no one loved him. The pastor declined to comment yesterday. Jones asked for and received guardianship of Lawrence in Franklin County Probate Court in 2007. Nikkie Reeves did not contest at that time but sought to regain custody in 2008. Children Services was not involved in the custody matter, spokeswoman Deborrha Armstrong said. During Lawrence's brief reunion with his mother and stepfather, the family was visited at least twice by workers from Children Services and the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Both agencies reported no signs of abuse. Children Services checked on the family March 3 not because of complaints against his mother and stepfather but because of an earlier investigation that began in October when someone reported that Lawrence was injured while in his grandmother's care. According to the case plan that was written in December, Jones was to set up visits with Lawrence, his mother and stepfather. The agency's plan also says that the couple have a history of domestic violence. Court records show that Mr. Reeves was charged with assault in 2006, but the case was dismissed. A behavior specialist with the developmental-disabilities board went to the home on March 1 to talk to the couple about how to manage Lawrence. The child attended preschool at the board's Early Childhood Education and Family Center. "We didn't ever have any indications of physical abuse," Superintendent Jed Morison said. "But I think it's fair to say that the teachers did have questions." Morison said the behavior specialist tried to teach the couple how to cope with the child's temper, problems listening and toilet-training. "There was a question about Lawrence indicating that his mother had spanked him," Morison said, "and the teacher talked to her." Mrs. Reeves said that the incident involved bed-wetting, Morison said. Had anything seemed seriously amiss, the center would have made a report, Director Rebecca Love said. Mrs. Reeves had called on Monday to say that Lawrence was ill, Morison said. "She indicated he would be out all week." In court yesterday, the boy's father and grandmother wept as details of the assault were read. Nikkie "abandoned the child years ago," Jones said. "She was bipolar and just had had another baby, with postpartum depression." Lawrence King Jr. said he believed John Reeves abused his son out of hate for the relationship King once had with Nikkie Reeves. About her, he said, "She lost hope and faith, and she wanted nothing to do with the child."
 * [|Bond set for mother in child endangerment case]