The autopsy report for King Owusu, 5, noted that the boy had been "beaten from head to toe" with injuries "too numerous to count." His mother, Valerie Owusu, and her boyfriend, Emmanuel Addae, face up to 25 years in prison for his killing.
A couple in Queens will soon learn their fate after being convicted of murder.
Valerie Owusu, 28, and her boyfriend Emmanuel Addae, 28, are facing up to 25 years in prison after a jury found them guilty of second-degree murder for the beating death of Owusu’s 5-year-old son, King Owusu.
Jurors came to that verdict after a 13-day trial during which prosecutors alleged that the couple brutally beat King with at least four different instruments in their home between March 30 and April 1, 2021.
The pair watched as the boy's condition continued to "deteriorate" and eventually lost consciousness, according to a statement from the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
At no time did the couple seek medical treatment for the boy, and instead chose to drop him off at the home of a family member while they took his sister shopping, prosecutors said.
That family member then returned home to find King dead of what the medical examiner later determined to be blunt force trauma, prosecutors said. The autopsy report also noted that the boy had been "beaten from head to toe" with injuries "too numerous to count."
In the wake of King's death, the couple returned to Ghana and then back to the United States, settling down in Orange, New Jersey, rather than returning to New York, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.
They were eventually arrested in April 2022 and charged with King's murder, according to court records. Child Protective Services also took custody of King's younger sister at that time.
Both Owusu and Addae deny ever beating the boy and pleaded not guilty. They will be sentenced on May 1.
“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,” District Attorney Tierney said in a statement after the couple's conviction. “Thanks to the thorough investigation by the Suffolk County Police Department, the relentless pursuit of justice by the prosecutors assigned to this case, and the jury’s careful consideration of the evidence presented, the defendants have been held accountable for this horrific crime.”
Lawyers for Owusu and Addae did not respond to a request for comment.
