Suffolk jury begins deliberations in murder trial of Valerie Owusu and Emmanuel Addae in King Owusu's death
Valerie Owusu, of Queens, is accused of murder in the death of her 5-year-old son, King Owusu. Credit: John Roca
A Suffolk County jury started deliberations Thursday in the case of a Queens mother and stepfather charged with second-degree depraved indifference murder in the death of her 5-year-old son.
Prosecutors allege Valerie Owusu and Emmanuel Addae, both 28, of Corona, drove King Owusu to Addae’s parents’ apartment in Brentwood instead of taking him to a doctor in the days after they beat him inside their LeFrak City apartment. The boy, who was 3-foot-6 and weighed 49 pounds, was pronounced dead several hours after arriving in Suffolk County on April 1, 2021.
“He looked to his mother for help and they watched him slowly die,” Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Elena Tomaro told the jury seated before acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski during closing arguments in Riverhead Thursday. “Not because they intended for him to die, but simply because they didn’t care if he died.”
The couple returned to Queens and went shopping after driving King, who had no medical records from the seven months he lived with the couple, 38 miles to Brentwood. The boy previously lived in Ghana, where his father resides.
Suffolk County Medical Examiner Dr. Odette Hall testified during the three-week trial that King’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, torso and extremities. She told the jury an autopsy revealed King suffered internal bleeding and more than 100 injuries.
Suffolk County police detectives located a belt buckle and broken sticks inside the family’s apartment during a pair of searches in the first few days after the boy’s death, according to testimony at trial.
Tomaro alleged the boy was whipped with the belt and beaten with the sticks “from head to toe.” The prosecutor slammed a stick entered into evidence against a railing in front of where the jury was seated to demonstrate the impact on King's body.
Taylor Lord, a self-described agoraphobic who told the jury she hadn’t left her apartment in seven years before arriving in Riverhead to testify last Friday, spoke of noises she heard on March 30, 2021, through a wall separating the eighth-floor apartment she shares with her mother from the unit where the defendants lived. She sent a text message to her mother about what she heard, evidence that was presented to the jury.
“Those hollers, the whipping, the banging … a man and a woman, a boy crying,” Tomaro said. “She heard what was happening to him.”
A LeFrak City surveillance video played at trial showed no one other than Owusu or Addae entered or left the apartment between the time of the alleged beating and when the family left for Brentwood. Additional footage from the same hallway showed Addae strike King in the face as he carried him out, the boy’s arms dangling over his stepfather’s right shoulder as he barely moves following the blow.
The defense attorneys for Owusu and Addae told the jury, which deliberated for about an hour Thursday, not to rely on the emotions evoked by prosecutors as they work toward a verdict.
Owusu’s attorney, Rene Myatt, of Queens, and Raymond Baierlein, of Bay Shore, who represents Addae, spoke of the more than 70 times Tomaro and co-counsel Scott Romano showed autopsy images of King’s injuries during the trial.
“[Their case was] heavy on sympathy, emotion and anger for what happened to King Owusu and light on evidence about what actually happened,” Baierlein said.
Both defense attorneys accused investigators of failing to properly secure evidence and the medical examiner of not thoroughly examining each of the boy’s wounds, including some that may have existed before the period when investigators allege the beating occurred.
Owusu and Addae, who were indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury in April 2022, had both initially told since-retired Suffolk County police Det. Pat Portela that the boy had been injured at the hands of his father in Ghana weeks earlier.
Deliberations will continue Friday morning.
A Suffolk County jury started deliberations Thursday in the case of a Queens mother and stepfather charged with second-degree depraved indifference murder in the death of her 5-year-old son.
Prosecutors allege Valerie Owusu and Emmanuel Addae, both 28, of Corona, drove King Owusu to Addae’s parents’ apartment in Brentwood instead of taking him to a doctor in the days after they beat him inside their LeFrak City apartment. The boy, who was 3-foot-6 and weighed 49 pounds, was pronounced dead several hours after arriving in Suffolk County on April 1, 2021.
“He looked to his mother for help and they watched him slowly die,” Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Elena Tomaro told the jury seated before acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski during closing arguments in Riverhead Thursday. “Not because they intended for him to die, but simply because they didn’t care if he died.”
Emmanuel Addae, of Queens, is accused of murder in the death of 5-year-old son King Owusu. Credit: John Roca
The couple returned to Queens and went shopping after driving King, who had no medical records from the seven months he lived with the couple, 38 miles to Brentwood. The boy previously lived in Ghana, where his father resides.
WHAT TO KNOW
- A Suffolk County jury started deliberations Friday in the case of a Queens mother and stepfather charged with second-degree depraved indifference murder in the death of her 5-year-old son.
- Prosecutors allege Valerie Owusu and Emmanuel Addae, both 28, of Corona, Queens, drove King Owusu to Addae’s parents’ apartment in Brentwood instead of taking him to a doctor in the days after they beat him inside their LeFrak City apartment.
- The boy was pronounced dead several hours after arriving in Suffolk County on April 1, 2021.
Suffolk County Medical Examiner Dr. Odette Hall testified during the three-week trial that King’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, torso and extremities. She told the jury an autopsy revealed King suffered internal bleeding and more than 100 injuries.
Suffolk County police detectives located a belt buckle and broken sticks inside the family’s apartment during a pair of searches in the first few days after the boy’s death, according to testimony at trial.
Tomaro alleged the boy was whipped with the belt and beaten with the sticks “from head to toe.” The prosecutor slammed a stick entered into evidence against a railing in front of where the jury was seated to demonstrate the impact on King's body.
Taylor Lord, a self-described agoraphobic who told the jury she hadn’t left her apartment in seven years before arriving in Riverhead to testify last Friday, spoke of noises she heard on March 30, 2021, through a wall separating the eighth-floor apartment she shares with her mother from the unit where the defendants lived. She sent a text message to her mother about what she heard, evidence that was presented to the jury.
“Those hollers, the whipping, the banging … a man and a woman, a boy crying,” Tomaro said. “She heard what was happening to him.”
A LeFrak City surveillance video played at trial showed no one other than Owusu or Addae entered or left the apartment between the time of the alleged beating and when the family left for Brentwood. Additional footage from the same hallway showed Addae strike King in the face as he carried him out, the boy’s arms dangling over his stepfather’s right shoulder as he barely moves following the blow.
The defense attorneys for Owusu and Addae told the jury, which deliberated for about an hour Thursday, not to rely on the emotions evoked by prosecutors as they work toward a verdict.
Owusu’s attorney, Rene Myatt, of Queens, and Raymond Baierlein, of Bay Shore, who represents Addae, spoke of the more than 70 times Tomaro and co-counsel Scott Romano showed autopsy images of King’s injuries during the trial.
“[Their case was] heavy on sympathy, emotion and anger for what happened to King Owusu and light on evidence about what actually happened,” Baierlein said.
Both defense attorneys accused investigators of failing to properly secure evidence and the medical examiner of not thoroughly examining each of the boy’s wounds, including some that may have existed before the period when investigators allege the beating occurred.
Owusu and Addae, who were indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury in April 2022, had both initially told since-retired Suffolk County police Det. Pat Portela that the boy had been injured at the hands of his father in Ghana weeks earlier.
Deliberations will continue Friday morning.
Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.
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