Point Breeze Couple Found Guilty Of Third Degree Murder In Death Of 6-Year-Old Son
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --A judge rejects prosecution arguments for first degree murder verdicts, instead finding a Point Breeze couple guilty of third degree murder in the horrific abuse death of their son.
The boy had been beaten and starved for years before he died at age 6 last year. The parents, Tina Cuffie and Latiff Hadi, are in custody and will be sentenced later.
Six-year-old Khalil Wimes weighed just 29 pounds when he died and prosecutor Edward McCann says every part of his body, from head to toe, was covered with new and old injuries, and the punishment continued until the day he died.
He was punished until he dropped.
Prosecutor Edward McCann said, "I've done a lot of cases, I have been in the DA for 24 years, that is something I will always take with me, I will never forget it, it is really the most barbaric thing I have ever heard in the courtroom."
The defense had conceded Tina Cuffie and Latiff Hadi had abused the boy but argued there was no intent to kill for first degree murder.
McCann says he will seek the maximum sentence of 33 1/2 to 67 years in prison.