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November 30, 2006

Update: Man to serve 40 years for killing 2-year-old / Photo

Journal photo / Kathy Borchers
Michelle Thurmon, the mother of 2-year-old murder victim Marquel Davis, cries in court after she makes her statement. "When they took Marquel, they took my spirit," Thurmon told Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause.

PROVIDENCE – A Superior Court judge today sentenced a Providence man to 60 years, with 40 to serve in the Adult Correctional Institutions, for the August 2005 killing of 2-year-old Marquel Davis.

Akeem King, 21, or 9 Erastus St., was found guilty last month of second-degree murder.

Today in court, Judge Robert D. Krause said the defendant “essentially used this youngster as a football.”

The child’s mother wept as she addressed the court.

“Marquel will only have his past. He will never have a future … ” Michelle Thurmon said. “When they took Marquel, they took my spirit. I wish they took me instead.”

The co-defendant in the brutal beating of the toddler has not yet come to trial. Troy Figgs, King’s roommate at the time of the murder, is scheduled to appear in court for a pre-trial hearing next week.

Thurmon, who worked as a prostitute for Figgs, had left the toddler in the care of the two men the night he was killed.

“I understand that what happened was terrible,” King said when he addressed the court this morning. “I want to apologize to Michelle.”

The prosecutor, Asst. Atty. Gen. Scott Erickson, asked Judge Robert D. Krause to impose a life sentence on King. The toddler was beaten and bruised all over his body, Erickson said, with bruises so deep that the boy’s muscles were bleeding.

Defense lawyer Mark L. Smith asked the judge to impose a sentence of 50 years, with 30 to serve.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Gregory Smith

Posted by Kate Bramson  at 12:33 PM | Permalink

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