Mother’s boyfriend arrested in killing of California girl, 8

MERCED, Calif. — After a months-long manhunt, police arrested a suspect within the dying of an 8-year-old woman who had been reported lacking earlier than her physique was discovered final March inside a central California dwelling, authorities mentioned Sunday.

Dhante Jackson was taken into custody Saturday within the San Francisco Bay Space metropolis of Newark on suspicion of killing Sophia Mason, police and the California legal professional basic’s workplace mentioned.

Investigators decided the kid suffered steady bodily abuse, was malnourished and at occasions was pressured to dwell in a shed within the yard of Jackson’s dwelling, Merced Police Division Lt. Joe Perez mentioned throughout a information convention Sunday.

Jackson was in a relationship with the younger sufferer’s mom, 30-year-old Samantha Johnson, who was arrested in March and has pleaded not responsible to homicide and little one abuse, prosecutors mentioned.

Jackson, 34, additionally faces homicide and little one abuse fees. It wasn’t identified Sunday if he has an legal professional who may communicate on his behalf.

4 different folks had been arrested Saturday on suspicion of serving to Jackson evade arrest, Perez mentioned.

“In my 20 years of regulation enforcement, this case is essentially the most disturbing and horrific that I’ve seen,” the lieutenant mentioned.

Sophia was reported lacking by relations within the San Francisco Bay Space metropolis of Hayward. They informed police that they had not had contact with the woman since December, and that she was identified to remain at totally different areas between Hayward and Southern California.

The lacking individual report led Hayward police to arrest Johnson on a warrant stemming from a case of kid abuse in Alameda County final yr, police mentioned.

Statements Johnson made to Hayward police prompted them to ask for help from the Merced Police Division, which served a search warrant in March on the home in Merced the place Jackson lived, they mentioned.

Merced police discovered Sophia’s physique in a tub, inside a locked toilet, in keeping with courtroom paperwork.

Johnson informed a Merced police detective that Jackson, her boyfriend, had stored Sophia in a shed and that the kid was subjected to bodily and sexual abuse by Jackson.

Sophia twice personally informed social staff that her mom had choked and hit her, in keeping with child-welfare paperwork uncovered by the Bay Space Information Group.

At one level, the inner paperwork present, a instructor and a social employee reported grave issues over what they thought-about indicators of abuse.

Sophia’s grandmother, Sylvia Johnson, final week filed a wrongful dying authorized declare in opposition to Alameda County, alleging the Division of Baby and Household Providers didn’t do sufficient to guard the little woman.

Alameda County has 45 days to answer the household’s claims, the information group reported Sunday. If no settlement is obtainable by the county and the declare is rejected, the household has six months to file a lawsuit.