Mother, man charged in Oklahoma City teenager’s ‘torture’
53 counts filed against mother, her friend in case of 15-year-old allegedly locked in closet

A mother "tortured” her son in Oklahoma City for years, locking him in a closet, setting him on fire, beating him and forcing him to stand barefoot in the snow, prosecutors alleged Thursday in a child abuse charge.

A friend of the woman also is charged with abusing the boy.

The case attracted national attention after the malnourished boy left his apartment Sept. 25 and reported to police his mother "would lock him in a closet and not feed him for several days at a time.” The boy also told police he had never been to school in the four years he had lived in Oklahoma.

Police originally reported he was 14. Prosecutors Thursday described him as 15. The boy is identified only by the initials B.M.

The mother, LaRhonda Marie McCall, faces 29 child abuse counts. Her friend, Steve Hamilton, a taxi driver, faces 27 child abuse counts.

Prosecutors filed 53 felony counts in all. They are charged together in some counts and separately in others.

"We think it went on pretty consistently ... We could have filed 150 counts,” said Gayland Gieger, an Oklahoma County assistant district attorney. "They seemed to punish him if they felt like he had stolen something, or something like that. It’s pretty shocking ... allegations. It’s hard to figure out why just him and not the other children.”

Both could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

The two are being held in the Oklahoma County jail. Police report the mother admitted beating her son and locking him in the closet. Police report Hamilton also admitted he beat the boy.

Prosecutors allege the abuse began in March 2006 after the boy, then 11, began living with his mother again. Prosecutors allege in the charge that McCall and Hamilton beat him with their fists, bike chains, cables, extension cords and boards. Prosecutors describe the boy as permanently scarred.

McCall, 37, and Hamilton, 38, kept the boy locked in a closet for such "extended periods of time ... that he was forced to urinate and defecate in the closet wall,” prosecutors alleged. The two also are accused of repeatedly tying up the boy naked.

The mother is accused in one child abuse count of pouring rubbing alcohol on the boy and setting him on fire. Another time, she allegedly tied him naked to a ladder in a garage and poured sugar water "on his body in order to attract biting insects.”

She allegedly once forced him to stand barefoot in the snow for more than 45 minutes and another time stand barefoot on a patch of ice in a garage for more than two hours. This year, she allegedly stabbed him in the shoulder with a knife.

Both allegedly forced him to stand on one foot with a cord around his neck and around his raised right ankle so that he would choke if he put his right foot down. Police reported the mother admitted the boy "was left like this for about an hour.” Hamilton also allegedly once hit the boy in the head with a tire iron.

About the fire, Hamilton on Oct. 1 told police "he saw LaRhonda purposely pour rubbing alcohol all over B.M.’s body,” according to a court affidavit. "Steve stated LaRhonda had a lighter in her hand and when B.M. moved he was lit on fire. Steve stated B.M. ‘had a blue flame over his entire body.’ Steve stated B.M. was burned on his butt and his ear. However, B.M. was not taken to a hospital.”

Police reported McCall said she accidentally poured rubbing alcohol on her son and he caught on fire when she lit incense.

Police earlier reported the boy and McCall’s other minor children were placed in the custody of the Department of Human Services.

Oklahoma prosecutors said Thursday that McCall was convicted in New York in 1996 of second-degree murder. New York officials earlier said the conviction was for second-degree manslaughter for the death of a 2-year-old daughter.

LINK TO COURT DOCUMENTS:

 http://www.newsok.com/article/3409480?searched=%20LaRhonda%20Marie%20McCall&custom_click=search#ixzz0U6m0YlPh

LaRhonda Marie McCall

Steve Hamilton

                                     ORIGINAL STORY:

Okla. teen claims he was held in closet for years

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A woman was arrested after her 14-year-son told authorities he escaped from a home where he'd been kept for 4 1/2 years, spending most of his time locked in a bedroom closet, police said Monday.

 A security guard at a National Guard facility in Oklahoma City called police on Friday after the teen showed up malnourished and with numerous scars and other signs of abuse, police Sgt. Gary Knight said.

"He was hungry. He was dirty. He had numerous scars on his body," Knight said. "It was very sad."

The boy was taken to a hospital to be examined and then turned over to the custody of the Department of Human Services Knight said.

After police interviews, officers on Saturday arrested the boy's mother, 37-year-old LaRhonda Marie McCall, and a friend, 38-year-old Steve Vern Hamilton, on 20 complaints each of child abuse and child neglect. Formal charges have not been filed, and both were being held on $400,000 bond, according to jail records.

Jail officials were not sure wheter either had retained an attorney, and no one answered the phone at McCall's home. A police report listed McCall as a pharmaceutical company employee and Hamilton as a cab driver.

The teen, wearing only a pair of oversized shorts held up by a belt, walked up to a security guard at the Guard facility around 5 p.m. Friday and asked where a police station was located so he could report being abused, according to a police report.

He told police that scars on his stomach and torso were from where alcohol had been poured on him and set on fire. Other scars were from being tied up, hit with an extension cord and choked, the boy told police.

"He had scars covering most of his body," Knight said. "They were basically from head to foot."

The teen told police he moved to the Oklahoma City area from New Jersey about 4 1/2 years ago after his mother was released from jail. Since arriving in Oklahoma, he said, he had never been to school and spent most of his time locked in a bedroom closet.

He told police the closet door was mostly blocked with a stepladder or a bed and that he managed to push the door open enough to escape and leave the house.

Knight said six other children living at the home were taken into DHS custody, but none showed signs of abuse. McCall had lived at several different addresses in the Oklahoma City area, he said.

A DHS spokeswoman said she could not discuss specific cases but generally an investigation would be conducted before any of the children are returned to the home or placed with other family members.

"There may be family members, but we do a diligent search, and we're very careful about placing kids in a safe environment," DHS spokeswoman Beth Scott said.