TACOMA, Wash. — Disclaimer: This story contains graphic details about child abuse and the death of a child that may be upsetting.
TACOMA, Wash. - A Tacoma woman was charged with first and second-degree murder in the death of her 3-year-old son on Wednesday.
On Feb. 12 around 7:35 p.m. officers from the Tacoma Police Department responded to the suspect's apartment complex on Mason Avenue in Tacoma for a welfare check. A friend of the suspect called 911 saying the 3-year-old was unresponsive and cold to the touch, according to probable cause documents.
The suspect was identified in court documents as 25-year-old Ivey Marie Lewis.
When officers arrived at the suspect's apartment, she told police her son was in the bedroom, unresponsive. Officers found the boy lying on the bed. His face was discolored and bruised with several cuts. The boy also had burn marks "on the entirety of his face," according to probable cause documents.
The boy's 1-year-old sibling was sitting next to him on the bed. Officers handed the baby to the suspect and asked them to wait in the living room.
Officers attempted to perform CPR on the child. The child was pronounced dead at 7:56 p.m.
The suspect told police that she found the boy lying next to the heater unresponsive and carried him into the bedroom before police arrived. Police noted that the living room heater was on the maximum temperature setting and the apartment was so hot that one of the officers reported "that it was difficult to breathe inside," according to probable cause documents.
Police found small scabs on the boy's midsection and after examining the victim's body more closely, detectives noted the boy had "obvious trauma" to the front of his head. The boy had what police believed to be blood around his mouth and nose. A large area on the left side of his face appeared to be burned, according to documents.
The suspect told police her son ran into the wall multiple times and hit his head. She said he would do this regularly.
On his lower torso, police observed marks consistent with being struck by a black electrical cord they later found at the apartment. There were many similar marks in different stages of healing, documents said, indicating the injuries were likely inflicted at different times.
Detectives also found wounds on the boy's chest, sides, arms and legs and fresh injuries on the boys back. Officers noted several small marks on the victim's chest which appeared to be consistent with an "electric shock device (taser)" that was located in the kitchen, according to probable cause documents.
When interviewed by detectives, Lewis said she was under supervision by Child Protective Services and the boy had previously been in foster care from the time he was 10 months old until six months before his death.
Lewis told police that she stayed awake until 1 or 2 a.m. on Sunday and the boy had been in the living room watching television while she was in her bedroom.
Lewis said she woke up at an unknown time the next day and put out food and a pastry for the boy to eat. She later woke up again between 6:45 p.m. and 6:50 p.m. and began to cook a meal for herself and the boy. At that time she noticed the boy was lying on the living room floor unresponsive.
Lewis said she couldn't wake the boy up. When she picked him up she saw that his eyes were "fluttering" but he was unresponsive. She then carried him to the bathroom and put his feet in water in the bathtub but that also failed to wake him. She then carried him to the bedroom and laid him on the bed. At that time, the suspect's friend arrived at her apartment and found the boy unresponsive and cold to the touch.
Lewis said prior to finding him unresponsive the boy only had a small mark under his eye and a small injury to his nose. She denied seeing any severe injuries on his body before finding him on the living room floor.
During the interview, the suspect said that her friend had been staying at the apartment on and off for three weeks. She initially denied using drugs other than marijuana but later admitted to using methamphetamine several days before her son's death.
When asked how she would discipline her children, Lewis said she would make the boy stand in the corner for time-out or she would swat him on the hand with her hand. She later admitted to hitting the boy with a belt when she found him cuddling with a female child.
Lewis was "unable or unwilling" to provide information about other adults who might have had access to the apartment or to the children and was unable to provide information about the 16 hours leading up to her son's death.
The suspect's friend who called 911 told police during an interview that he had previously seen the suspect strike the boy with an electrical cord.
A preliminary autopsy revealed that the boy suffered blunt force trauma to his head, which was identified as his cause of death.
The 1-year-old child found at the apartment was taken to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital where medical staff advised police that the child had methamphetamine in his system.