Man Suspected In Three-Year-Old Boy's Death Arrested
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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - A man suspected in the death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son is in the jail, charged with murder.
He made his first appearance before a judge this afternoon, where he was denied bond.
Corey Gordon, 28, was arrested by Broward Sheriff's deputies late Tuesday night in Lauderhill.
Gordon, a resident of North Lauderdale, is accused of killing Kyhese Coach, 3, while his 20-year-old girlfriend, Chantel Haye, was at work.
"I trusted him with my son, my life," Kyhese's mom sobbed. "My son, my son is my everything. I went to work. I was trying to do better for me. and my baby boy."
CBS4's Joan Murray spoke with Kyhese's biological father, Clifford Coach who is broken-hearted over his son's death. Clifford coach says he grew suspicious over the past year that his son was being abused. But says the toddlers mother protected Gordon.
"Look at how they treated him..it's not right..it's not right," said Coach. "I know he was being strong because you can't really tell he was being abused."
According to Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO), detectives were sent to the Coral Springs Medical Center Monday afternoon after Haye went to the emergency room with her son's lifeless body.
Click here to watch Carey Codd's report.
Haye was at her first day of work at a telemarketing company in Boca Raton.
Gordon, her boyfriend of about a year, agreed to take care of her son, according to BSO.
Haye, between 9 and 10 a.m., called Gordon to check on her son, according to the arrest warrant. Gordon told Haye he was upset at the child.
When Gordon picked up Haye from work, at approximately 3:35 p.m., she noticed something was wrong with Khyese. She initially thought her son was sleeping, but realized something was wrong when he was cold to the touch. "I kept asking him 'what did you do?' I'm holding my baby. And he's like 'why are you yelling at me? You're going to make me drive into a lake.' Nobody don't know what i went through in that car."
When Haye noticed the bruising, Gordon reportedly told her he slapped the child, "boxed" him and that he fell down the stairs.
Haye told police that Gordon was visibly upset, crying, stating "I'm going to jail," and "What are we going to do? What are you going to tell them at the hospital?"
According to the arrest warrant, the hospital staff observed several injuries to the child, including bruising over most of the body and possible signs of sexual abuse. His mother's family disputes that.
"There was no reason for them to believe that he was sexually abused," said Penny Williams, a friend of Chantel Haye. "The blood that they may have seen in that area is because of the internal bleeding because Kyhese got hit in his stomach so much that it ruptured."
The Broward County Medical Examiner performed an autopsy on Khyese and ruled his death a homicide cause by blunt force trauma.
On Tuesday, before Gordon's arrest, Haye pleaded for her boyfriend to turn himself in saying, "He hurt him. He hurt him to the point where he was lifeless. He took his life away from him. And away from me and my mom."
Kyhese's grandmother, Glenda Haye, said the boy's injuries were severe.
"She look at his stomach and there was bruises all over his stomach and like he punch him in his temple," Glenda Haye said.
Haye said her grandson told her just three days ago that Gordon punched him in the stomach.
"Khyese was so afraid of him,"she said.
Yet Chantel Haye still allowed Gordon to watch the child by himself just days later with fatal consequences. Glenda Haye said she had no idea that was happening.
"I was home and I didn't know that she was going to leave him with him," she said.
Haye said she trusted Gordon.
"I never thought that he would hurt my son," Haye said.
On January 21st, 2015, the sheriff's office investigated allegations that Haye and Gordon had beaten the child. An investigator found no suspicious marks or bruises indicative of abuse.
In December 2014 an investigation was launched after it was reported that Khyese was crying and marks that looked like belt marks on his body. The report was closed with "no indicators" of physical injury. There was also a report from 2009 involving Gordon, but no information on that one was made available.
"When I heard DCF [Department Of Children and Families] was involved, I was relieved. I thought I'm gonna get my child," said Coach.
The child's paternal grandmother, Keisha Simpson, she felt DCF dropped the ball on the issue.
"And if they hadn't he would be alive," said Simpson.
