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Original URL: jsonline.com
Boy's death ruled homicide
Church elder sat on child's chest, police say; charges uncertain
By REID J. EPSTEIN and ALLISON L. SMITH
repstein@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Aug. 25, 2003
The 8-year-old autistic boy who died during a weekend prayer service suffocated after a church elder sat on his chest, police said Monday. The Milwaukee County medical examiner's office has ruled the death a homicide.
But prosecutors Monday said state laws about religious healing practices are complicating decisions about whether to charge the man accused of being involved. Though police say the elder told them he sat on the boy's chest, a woman who participated in the fatal prayer session said he had only lain across it.
Terrance Cottrell Jr. died Friday night at the Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith on Milwaukee's northwest side. The cause was "mechanical asphyxia due to external chest compression," according to the medical examiner's office.
Church leaders and a neighbor had identified the boy as Torrance Cantrell over the weekend, when police would not confirm his identity. Monday, the boy's father and the medical examiner provided the corrected spelling of his name.
A high-ranking Milwaukee police source said Ray Hemphill told investigators that he would sit on the boy's chest for up to two hours at a time during prayer services at the small storefront church at 8709 W. Fond du Lac Ave. The nightly prayer services started three weeks ago, police say Hemphill told them.
According to the jail records, Hemphill, who was arrested Saturday, weighs 157 pounds. The boy's weight was unknown.
Hemphill, 45, is being held on suspicion of physical abuse of a child, a felony. Milwaukee police Capt. Nan Hegerty said Monday that she does not expect anyone else to be arrested in the case.
Three women - including Terrance's mother, Patricia Cooper - sat on the boy's arms and legs while Hemphill tried to remove the "evil spirits" from him, said Hemphill's brother, David Hemphill, the pastor of the church where the service took place.
Tamara Tolefree of Milwaukee said Monday she held Terrance's leg during the prayer. After at least two other physically intense sessions like the one Friday, Tolefree said, Ray Hemphill decided to devote his entire vacation from his job as a janitor to "getting that spirit out of" the boy, who was also called "Junior."
Friday "was to be our last and final time trying that kind of prayer," Tolefree said.
When Tolefree picked them up Friday, she said, Terrance seemed different.
Instead of hopping into the back seat and rocking back and forth like usual, entertaining himself with his pillow, Terrance was uncharacteristically stoic, recalled Tolefree.
"He just sat still and stared straight ahead, and I was very concerned," Tolefree said. But she said Cooper insisted on proceeding as planned, saying that Terrance was "just sleepy from a nap" an hour or so before.
She said while she held one leg, Cooper held the other. A third woman held Terrance's left arm. Tolefree demonstrated on a reporter how Ray Hemphill held the boy's head with his right hand and the boy's right hand with his left as he lay across the boy's chest.
As the session went on, the third woman pressed her hands onto Terrance's abdomen, and Hemphill would periodically take his body weight off Terrance to "check Junior's face to see if the prayer was working," Tolefree said.
After more than an hour of restraining Terrance and praying for him, Tolefree said, the group saw the boy had shut his eyes and slowed his breathing. Ray Hemphill then "took control" of the situation and attempted to revive the boy, she said. Paramedics were called but could not save Terrance.
Tolefree said she has not been interviewed by law enforcement authorities.
Prosecutors reviewing
District Attorney E. Michael McCann said Monday he and other prosecutors met with Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen to review the case.
The fact that Terrance died during what the participants called a prayer service adds legal complications, McCann said.
"The statutes have usually arisen in the context of non-treatment where simply prayer was used," McCann said.
Wisconsin law makes it a felony to intentionally cause bodily harm to a child. But a subsection reads: "TREATMENT THROUGH PRAYER. A person is not guilty of an offense under this section solely because he or she provides a child with treatment by spiritual means through prayer alone for healing in accordance with the religious method of healing permitted" under other statutes "in lieu of medical or surgical treatment."
The allegations of physical restraint are the legal wrinkle, McCann said. David Hemphill has said sheets were used to help control the boy during the healing.
Another section reads that a determination of abuse or neglect "may not be based solely on the fact that the child's parent, guardian or legal custodian in good faith selects and relies on prayer or other religious means for treatment of disease or for remedial care of the child."
Terrance's father, Terrance Cottrell Sr., said Monday that he wants everyone involved in his son's death to be held responsible.
"The way they performed, whatever the traditional way it was, it was just a way to kill somebody," he said.
Terrance Cottrell Sr., 33, had not seen his son for about two months, he said, but didn't see the boy often because he didn't get along with his son's mother.
"She's not a bad person," Cottrell said. "But she's gullible."
Mother not commenting
Cooper could not be reached for comment Monday. The makeshift vigil to her son remained in the window of her house in the 5900 block of N. 61st St.
David and Pamela Hemphill released "A letter of condolences" to the boy's family and the public.
"Terrance's death is a great tragedy," the letter states. "However, it was not a malicious act on the part of the church. If you believe in God and his word you have the right to believe he can help you, through prayer." |
