Youngstown Daily Legal News

Conviction of mother for son’s murder upheld

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: November 21, 2014

A Cleveland woman who was sentenced to serve 31 years to life in prison for the murder of her 3-year-old son had her convictions affirmed recently by the 8th District Court of Appeals.

Camilia Terry was found guilty by a jury in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas of aggravated murder, tampering with evidence and abuse of corpse after it was found that she beat her son, Emilliano, to death, threw his body in a Dumpster and then lied to police about what happened.

Case summary states that, on Nov. 25, 2012, Cleveland police received a call from Terry stating that she had lost her son in Cleveland’s Kossuth Park. When police arrived, she claimed that her younger daughter, K.T., saw Emilliano get into a black car.

As the investigation into Emilliano’s death intensified, the FBI became involved and several inconsistencies in Terry’s story were uncovered.

At first, Terry claimed that she and her three kids were at home all day until about 4 p.m. at which point they went to the park.

However, cellphone records revealed that Terry was near downtown Cleveland at about 2:30 p.m. that day and she eventually admitted to taking the bus downtown around 1 p.m.

Surveillance video from shops in the area depicted Terry walking with a stroller and K.T., but not Emilliano. A store clerk at a children’s clothing store told police that she knew Terry and that Terry had stopped in that day to return clothing that was Emilliano’s size.

After reviewing Terry’s Internet activity, FBI agents showed Terry a copy of a posting she had made three days before she made the call to police about her missing son. The posting stated, “I have a 3-year-old toddler I want to put up for adoption.”

Upon further questioning, Terry’s story changed. She told FBI agents that she awoke that morning to find Emilliano dead and did not know why he stopped breathing.

Terry claimed she was afraid that others would think she was responsible for the death so she panicked and disposed of the body, though she refused to lead investigators to it.

Meanwhile, a group of law enforcement officials were searching Terry’s apartment building when they noticed that there was a Dumpster directly below Terry’s balcony.

Agents contacted the trash collection truck that had emptied the Dumpster earlier that day. They isolated the trash in a bay at the local waste management facility.

Among the garbage, they found Emilliano’s body wrapped in approximately seven different plastic bags and then sealed in a blue nylon bag.

When investigators informed Terry that her son’s body had been found, her story changed yet again.

According to her, a man she identified as “Red” caused Emilliano’s death. She stated that Red had attacked her in front of her children and grew increasingly violent, threatening to kill her and her family.

One day, Terry said that Red chased her into her bedroom and inserted a needle into her arm, causing her to lose consciousness. When she awoke, she found Emilliano dead in a closet with note pinned to his chest stating, “If you try and find me I’m going to kill you and your kids.”

An autopsy revealed that Emilliano had multiple skull fractures and bruising underneath the scalp, along with lacerations and contusions to his head. It was determined that he had been dead approximately five days before his body was found.

Emilliano also had bruising on the back of his shoulder blades and a severe laceration to his liver. He had sustained several fractures to his ribs in the months leading up to his death along with blunt impacts to the head, torso and extremities.

Emilliano’s death was ruled a homicide.

Traces of blood matching Emilliano’s were found spattered throughout Terry’s apartment. DNA gathered from the knot area of the bags used to dispose of Emilliano’s body matched Terry’s and it was found that Terry had conducted multiple Internet searches on child adoption services around the time of her son’s death.

At trial, “Red,” later identified as Rahsaan Lamar, testified that he did not know that Terry had children and that he never inflicted physical harm upon her. He maintained that he had never been in Terry’s apartment.

During the time that Terry claimed to be unconscious because she was drugged by Lamar, cellphone records indicated that she sent 17 text messages and received 20, then conducted a 10-minute phone call.

Social workers, doctors and close friends testified to the strained relationship that Terry had with Emilliano. He was skinny and small for his age and Terry would often get frustrated with him, according to their family doctor.

A close friend testified that Terry beat Emilliano and K.T. with a belt on one occasion and another testified that Terry addressed Emilliano as “hard-head,” “bitch” and “mother f----r.”

Terry was eventually found guilty of murdering her son and she appealed to the Eighth District court, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to prove her guilt and that her convictions were against the manifest weight of the evidence.

“With the absence of eyewitness testimony to the murder, the state premised its case against Terry on substantial circumstantial evidence,” wrote Judge Mary Eileen Kilbane for the court of appeals. “There is no difference, in terms of probative value, between circumstantial evidence and direct evidence.”

The appellate panel reviewed law enforcement testimony indicating that Terry showed a general lack of concern for Emilliano during the period following his disappearance.

“Law enforcement officials also testified to the three different explanations Terry gave as to Emilliano’s disappearance and tragic death, and how each was shown to be untrue,” wrote Judge Kilbane.

The court of appeals concluded that the testimony, coupled with medical and trace evidence, proved that Terry acted purposefully when she beat her son to death.

“Thus, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the murder and aggravated murder proven beyond a doubt,” wrote Judge Kilbane.

The appellate panel also sided with the jury when it came to the weight of the evidence. It held that the jury chose to assign more weight and credibility to the physical evidence presented by the state which, it concluded was a rational decision in light of the many different and inconsistent stories that Terry told.

“We cannot say that the jury lost its way and created a manifest miscarriage of justice in convicting Terry,” wrote Judge Kilbane.

The court of appeals went on to overrule Terry’s claims that she received ineffective assistance of counsel and that the trial court erred by not instructing the jury on the lesser included offense of reckless homicide.

The judgment of the Cuyahoga County court was affirmed with Presiding Judge Sean Gallagher and Judge Kenneth Rocco joining Judge Kilbane to form the majority.

The case is cited State v. Terry, 2014-Ohio-4804.

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