MORGAN COUNTY, Mo. – Three-year-old Blake Litton was barely clinging to life when the man charged with his murder brought the toddler to the nursing home where his mother worked.
Thomas “T.J.” Presley, 21, and Jamie Ann (Miller) Litton, 25, of Stover, Mo., have both been charged with second-degree murder. The mother also faces two counts of first-degree child endangerment.
According to probable cause statements filed with the court, Blake Litton was alive when Presley drove him to Litton’s place of employment, the Golden Age Nursing Home in Stover, at approximately 5 a.m., Thursday, after he sustained multiple injuries from a severe beating. The mother did not seek medical care for her child at the nursing home and did not immediately call 911.
During an interview with law enforcement, Litton said she and Presley were crying in the parking lot, but Blake was “peaceful” in his booster seat. Litton said she screamed Blake’s name but he did not respond and claimed that when she initially took his pulse on his left arm she obtained a radial pulse reading of 62, according to the probable cause statement. She would later tell investigators that she was unable to obtain a pulse and admitted the pulse she mentioned earlier might have been her own in a rush to check Blake’s pulse.
Prior to arriving at the her workplace, Litton said she had received a text message from Presley advising her that he “lost it” and thought he had beat Blake to the point of being paralyzed and that he was in “bad shape.”
According to investigators, Litton said she told Presley to take the child to the emergency room, but Presley said he could not take him there because he would go to prison for the rest of his life.
During the interview, Litton told authorities that she tried to get off work by explaining that there was an issue with her son but was unable to leave the nursing home. She later admitted that she did not disclose the cause of the injuries to her son when asking to leave work.
Surveillance video from the nursing home shows a dark colored SUV pulled into the parking lot at about 5 a.m. and a person was walking around the vehicle. The SUV left the lot three minutes later. Litton told investigators she thought Presley was taking the child to the emergency room and returned to work.
Litton told investigators the next text message she received from Presley stated that Blake had been struck by a car.
Litton clocked out of work at 5:15 a.m. and walked to the couple’s home and rode to the scene of the falsified accident where she spoke with law enforcement, but did not mention anything regarding the true nature of the child’s injuries.
Once told she could leave, Litton rode with Presley and the three-year-old girl to a neighbor’s home where she left Presley with the child and went to visit her mother.
Blake was pronounced dead at Bothwell Hospital in Sedalia. An autopsy Thursday afternoon indicated that Blake died as a result of multiple injuries caused by the beating.
According to the probable cause statement, injuries found during the initial autopsy included a lacerated liver and ruptured blood vessel in his brain, visible bruises and lacerations to the head, neck, torso, buttocks, legs and arms.
In a forensic interview at Child Safe in Sedalia on Friday, the three-year-old sister of the victim stated she observed “T.J.” “punch” Blake in the mouth because he “pooped.” After Blake was punched, the girl witnessed Presley putting Blake into the bathtub and stated that he “hit him with the bathtub a lot.”
In Presley’s probable cause statement, investigators said he admitted to beating Blake at the residence. Investigators report that Presley said at about 2:30 a.m. he became enraged with the child and struck him more times than he could remember with an open hand and kicked the child several times.
“I really beat him bad this time,” Presley said to investigators.
Presley said he lost control and blacked out as he beat the child, but later placed the toddler in bed and thought he was going to be fine.
However, 30 minutes later, Presley said he heard a loud noise in the kitchen and found the child unresponsive on the floor. At that point, Presley said he knew the child was injured badly and appeared to be gasping for breath as his eyes rolled back in his head.
Presley told investigators he thought the child was paralyzed.
At this point, Presley loaded Blake and his three-year-old sister into the SUV and drove them to Litton at the nursing home where he informed her that he beat the child badly and felt he over did it.
Presley said he left the nursing home and started to drive to Sedalia to seek medical attention for the child and realized the child was deceased and instead called EMS and falsified the hit-and-run story.
During the Friday afternoon press conference, Sheriff Petty told reporters the three-year-old girl had been placed with the maternal grandparents after receiving medical treatment Thursday.
A forensic nursing team examined the girl at Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, Mo. The team reported a broken wrist and bruising discovered on her head, torso, legs, buttocks and arms. The medical team also found a patch of hair stubble or re-growth visible from a healing hemotoma (a mass of clotted blood that forms in a tissue or organ as a result of a broken blood vessel). The child’s liver enzymes also were elevated indicating a blunt injury to the liver.
During the examination, the child indicated to medical personnel that “daddy” caused the injuries.
It is believed that some of the injuries were up to two weeks old.
During a press conference Friday, Sheriff Petty said Litton and Presley had moved out of the maternal grandparent’s residence into a place of their own within days of the incident.
When questioned by a reporter during the press conference about the safety of the three-year-old girl, Petty said he was personally acquainted with the family that is now taking care of her and referred to them as “good people.”
The sheriff said he and the entire department would continue to investigate and hope to determine who, if anyone, dropped the ball in this case.
Petty said he knew of previous calls to the Division of Family Services regarding the family in the past and that Litton has had two additional children taken from her custody in the past.
Petty said law enforcement will continue to investigate if there was a failure in the system and who dropped the ball, whether it was his department, DFS, juvenile authorities, neighbors or family.
“This shouldn’t have happened,” Petty said. “I’m not looking to blame anyone. It is frustrating that this happened on our watch…I don’t have any red flags or anything like that indicating that any agency or persons involved did something wrong.”
In the 10 years he has served as sheriff, the county has not experienced a child fatality like this, Petty said.
Petty said he had been in touch with State Rep. Rodney Schad in an effort to determine what changes need to be made in the system and how to make sure a tragedy like this does not happen again.
As required by law, Petty said the Child Death Review Team would meet next week to review the case.
Presley and Litton are each being held in the Morgan County Jail in lieu of a $100,000 cash-only bond.
A court date has not been set for Presley or Litton at this time.
Visitation for Blake Litton will be held at 4-6 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 21, and the funeral at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 22, at Campbell-Lewis Funeral Home in Sweet Springs, Mo.
Clarification: Blake Litton died 10 days prior to his fourth birthday. He and his younger sister were both three years old at the time of the incident.
