Murtadah Mohammad, 25, has been indicted by the Hillsborough County Grand Jury on multiple counts in connection with the death of his son, Jaevion Riley, 7, according to Attorney General John Formella.
The Hillsborough County Grand Jury has returned indictments charging Mohammad with one count of second-degree murder, for causing Jaevion’s death recklessly under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of his life, by subjecting him to abusive violence and not obtaining timely medical assistance for his injuries.
In addition, the Grand Jury returned indictments charging Mohammad with multiple counts of assault: two counts of first-degree assault, for knowingly causing serious bodily injury to Jaevion by scalding him with hot liquid and burning him with a hot pan; and two counts of second-degree assault, for knowingly causing bodily injury to Jaevion by whipping him with a cord and striking him in the face.
The murder and assault charges seek extended terms of imprisonment based upon Jaevion’s age and/or the infliction of exceptional cruelty or depravity upon him, Formella said.
Mohammad was indicted on three counts of falsifying physical evidence: one count for deleting internet data from his cellphone, another count for deleting call history from his cellphone, and the third count for staging a false accident scene.
Mohammad is being held without bail.
Jaevion Riley died in January at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after he was found unresponsive in his Eastern Avenue apartment in Manchester Jan. 17.
Jaevion had burns over 15 to 20 percent of his body as well as other injuries consistent with physical abuse, according to an affidavit filed in Hillsborough Superior Court North in Manchester. The child also suffered a heart attack during the last incident of abuse, according to the affidavit.
A tipster contacted police to say that Mohammad was packing his belongings into his car as his son was unconscious in the hospital, with burns on his body, missing teeth, and marks from where he was beaten with a charging cable, according to the affidavit. Police gathered other information to indicate he planned to run and issued an order to hold him if he was spotted.
Mohammad was found and arrested on Jan. 19 in Manchester as detectives were typing an application for his arrest warrant, according to the affidavit.
Police went to Mohammad’s apartment on Jan. 17 to respond to a 911 call that a child was unconscious. They found the badly burned and battered Jaevion in the apartment, and they got a changing version of events from Mohammad about what led to the boy’s condition, according to the affidavit.
Mohammad initially tried to explain the burning as a kitchen accident, but as that story fell apart, Mohammad started to say more. He eventually told police that he put the boy, naked, into the shower and put on the scalding hot water as a punishment, according to the affidavit. Mohammad told police he was trying to discipline his 7-year-old son by burning him, the affidavit states.
“Mohammad admitted that he had an issue with (Jaevion) lying to him recently and that he tried to use discipline to correct the issue,” the affidavit states.
Those disciplinary measures started with spanking, moved on to beatings with the charging cable, and then finally the hot water in the shower, Mohammad told police.
Damien Fisher’s previous reporting contributed to this story.