A Texas mother is facing a capital murder charge after the death of her three year-old son, who investigators say suffered catastrophic injuries during an alleged assault by her ex-convict boyfriend. Prosecutors accuse 30-year-old Chelsea Berg of playing a role in the alleged abuse that claimed the life of Dawson Zamora in Amarillo at the weekend. Berg was arrested on Monday, one day after Dawson died in hospital. (Pictures: Facebook)
Authorities say that the child had been fighting for survival for almost two months after the alleged October assault that left him with catastrophic brain damage, along with a brain bleed and heavy bruising across his body, Daily Mail reports. It’s reported that Berg allowed her boyfriend Christopher Alexander to move into her home even though he was wearing an ankle monitor after an unrelated stalking indictment. (Dawson pictured with his father Dahrian) (Picture: Dahrian Zamora)
Alexander also had prior convictions for theft and unlawful restraint. Berg was originally charged with injury to a child by omission. That charge was upgraded after Dawson’s death with prosecutors now accusing her of capital murder, suggesting she bore equal responsibility for what happened. If tried and found guilty, she could face the death penalty under Texas state law. (Picture: Facebook)
Toddler Dawson (pictured with his father) died on Sunday morning, which was also his father Dahrian Zamora’s birthday. Zamora held his son as he passed away in his hospital bed and later told The Daily Mail that while he is mourning, he feels some peace in knowing that his child is no longer suffering. He said that he’s ‘grateful’ that his young son isn’t hurting, adding: ‘I have some relief that he’s not dealing with that anymore’. Zamora, who learned of the upgraded charges soon after Dawson’s death, said on Facebook that his ex-wife was ‘being charged at the highest degree due to her lack of effort in protecting our children’. (Picture: GoFundMe)
Alexander, 30, is also charged with capital murder of a person under 10 years old. He was the one who brought Dawson to the hospital on October 14 after allegedly hearing a ‘thud’, which he claimed came from the boy’s fall. Medical staff quickly alerted police after determining that the injuries didn’t match the explanation given. Alexander was arrested two days later and then charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence. He has remained jailed since the arrest, with prosecutors now upgrading the charge following Dawson’s death. Zamora shared a heart-breaking statement on Facebook about his son’s passing. He wrote: ‘With great sorrow I come here today to notify the public that my son Dawson has passed away. He died on my birthday yesterday’. He said that Dawson’s ‘gift to me was his final breath and we are now forever interlocked with my birth and his death’. He added that his son ‘held on to spend one last birthday with me and refused to go until then’.(Picture: Collin County Jail)
He added: ‘My son didn’t have to die. This could have been prevented. He should have been protected and now he was murdered.’ The devastated father claimed a six-page arrest affidavit will soon outline Berg’s alleged involvement. Zamora, who was granted custody of Dawson and his daughter Harper after the October hospitalisation, said he is now preparing for the unimaginable. ‘I’m 31 years old having to bury my three year-old son and I obviously wasn’t prepared for this because we shouldn’t have to bury our children’. He later updated followers saying that Harper was safe and adjusting to a new school, while struggling to understand her brother’s death. Police say that Chelsea Berg left Dawson in Alexander’s care on the morning of the alleged assault. CT and MRI scans later revealed injuries that Zamora claimed showed signs of ‘prior abuse’. He said: ‘He [Alexander] had an ankle monitor and Chelsea knew that. He was dealing with stalking allegations. Chelsea also knew that’. Dawson spent weeks in intensive care before he passed away at the weekend. A GoFundMe for the family has raised more than $60,000. (Picture: Facebook)Add as preferred source