A US-based Ghanaian couple has been sentenced to a 25-year jail term for second-degree murder in the death of their 5-year-old son.
Valerie Owusu, along with her boyfriend, Emmanuel Addae, both 28 years old and residing in Corona, Queens, New York, had been convicted in March of depraved indifference murder for the death of King Owusu.
The verdict was delivered on Wednesday, 1 May, 2024, in court, with the mum Valarie in tears.
Despite expressing love for the child and pleading for leniency, they were given the maximum sentences by acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said;
"The jury has spoken, but unfortunately, that will not bring back this young boy,"
The sentence comes nearly three years after the two brutally beat and left the boy for dead on Long Island.
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, Valerie Owusu and Emmanuel Addae beat the child with "at least four different instruments" over three days in 2021.
The prosecutors added that neither Owusu, who is the biological mother of the victim nor Addae called 911 or provide medical care when his situation deteriorated.
They continued by saying they later sent the boy to a family member's house.
The family member later returned home to find the boy dead.
"This little boy was beaten and suffered for days at the hands of these defendants, one of whom was his own mother, until he, unfortunately, succumbed to his severe and extensive injuries.
"Thanks to the thorough investigation by the Suffolk County Police Department, the relentless pursuit of justice by the prosecutors assigned to this case, and the jury's careful consideration of the evidence presented, the defendants have been held accountable for this horrific crime," the District Attorney said in a press statement.
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