http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10171111
Police: Cult starved toddler over “amen”
BALTIMORE — A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia in April was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say “amen” after meals, police said.
Ria Ramkissoon, the mother of Javon Thompson, was charged Sunday with first-degree murder in the boy’s death. Baltimore police said Monday that three other members of a group called 1 Mind Ministries have also been charged with first-degree murder. Police and Ramkissoon’s family say the group is a cult.
Members did not seek medical care for Javon when he stopped breathing, and the boy died in his mother’s arms, according to court documents. He would have been about 19 months old when police say adults stopped feeding him in December 2006.
Ramkissoon, 21, was being held Monday in the psychiatric ward of Baltimore’s Central Booking and Intake Center, and a bail review was postponed until today. Her public defender declined comment.
The three other people charged in Javon’s death — Queen Antoinette, 40, also known as Toni Ellsberry or Toni Sloan; Marcus Cobbs, 21; and Trevia Williams, who turns 21 today — were already in custody.
Ramkissoon’s family said she should not be held responsible for her son’s death. “She had no control over that situation at all,” her stepfather, Craig Newton, said Monday.
Ramkissoon’s mother, Seeta Khadan-Newton, told The (Baltimore) Sun on Sunday that it wasn’t her daughter’s decision not to feed the boy.
“My daughter was a victim, just like my grandson,” Khadan-Newton said. “Somebody made that decision to not feed that child, and my daughter had to follow instructions.”
According to court documents, Ramkissoon joined 1 Mind Ministries after Javon was born. Ramkissoon’s mother last saw her daughter in April 2006. She later sued for custody of her grandson, writing in a letter to a judge that “the cult leaders” were preventing her from contacting her daughter.
Court documents show police interviewed two school-age children who had been part of the group but were taken away from members by Philadelphia police.
The children told investigators that members stopped feeding Javon in December 2006, in part because the boy refused to say “amen” after dinner. Members also viewed Javon as “a demon.”
Another unnamed informant told police that after Javon died, Antoinette left the boy’s body in a room for more than a week, claiming, “God was going to raise Javon from the dead,” the documents show.
Afterward, Antoinette burned the boy’s clothing and a mattress and placed his body in a green suitcase, which she would periodically open and spray with disinfectant to mask the odor, police claim in the court documents.
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