A Ghanaian couple based in Queens, New York was sentenced to 25 years in prison for beating a 5-year-old boy to death.
The boy’s mother Valerie Owusu, 28, along with her boyfriend Emmanuel Addae, also 28, were found responsible for bashing King Owusu “with at least four different instruments” in their Lefrak City apartment around late March of 2021.
A jury convicted the couple of second-degree murder on March 22. A judge handed down their punishment Wednesday, ruling no one was “more deserving of a maximum sentence” than the defendants in this case.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney agreed but saw no cause for celebration.
“The jury has spoken, but unfortunately, that will not bring back this young boy,” Tierney said.
Prosecutors said that after beating King Owusu, the defendants watched the child’s condition worsen over the course of roughly three days, then dropped him off at the home of Addae’s parents in Long Island after the boy lost consciousness.
A relative notified authorities, who brought the victim to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“This little boy was beaten and suffered for days at the hands of these defendants, one of whom was his own mother until he, unfortunately, succumbed to his severe and extensive injuries,” Tierney said when the couple was convicted.
Prosecutors said the medical examiner who conducted the child’s autopsy testified that King’s injuries covered his entire body and “were too numerous to count.”
nydailynews.com