YOUNGSTOWN — In finding Maleka D. Curry, 35, and Christopher L. Hill, 43, guilty on all counts of felony child endangering and felonious assault Tuesday, Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John Durkin cited Curry’s own statement that she was in the bedroom where Hill punished her 13-year-old son on May 9, 2024.

The judge also cited the testimony of another son, who said Curry “said hit him a few more times.”

Durkin also cited case law, testimony of a medical doctor and testimony from Amanda McAllen, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Akron Children’s Boardman campus, who “testified that the defendants’ conduct went well beyond what is appropriate for physical discipline and that it was highly concerning and consistent with physical abuse.”

The judge found Curry guilty of three counts of felony child endangering and one count of felonious assault and found Hill guilty of two counts of child endangering and one count of felonious assault. Both will be sentenced later, and each could get well over 10 years in prison.

The judge said Curry and Hill were in a parental position and “had the right to use reasonable physical discipline or corporal punishment to prevent and punish … misconduct. However, the use of an object to repeatedly strike a 13-year-old on the arms, arm pit, neckline, shoulder blades and middle and lower back was in this court’s opinion reckless and it violated and created a substantial risk of serious physical harm.”

Their actions also disregarded “the unjustifiable risks associated with striking a 13-year-old boy repeatedly with some object, whether that be a belt, extension cord or similar item.”

Durkin heard the case without a jury at the request of the defendants. Monday was full of testimony from police officers, the victim and many others. On Tuesday morning, the defense and prosecution gave closing arguments before the judge retired to his chambers to deliberate.

A little more than an hour later, he announced his verdict. Curry, who had been free on bond, was handcuffed and taken to the jail, with her bond revoked. Hill had been in custody and returned to the jail after the verdict.

Testimony showed that on the night of the beating, the boy was found at the Southern Park Mall as a runaway and was taken home. He left home a second time and was taken home again by Youngstown police.

But soon after the boy went into the home, where he lived with Curry and Hill, he went out a window and onto the back of the house. Police became aware of his actions but concluded that the best course of action was to leave and that the boy would leave the roof on his own.

The boy testified that Hill pulled him back into the house and “gave me a whuppin.'” The boy said he thought he got hit with a belt, but wasn’t sure what the object was. He said it “hurt a lot” that night. “My back was hurting, my arms was hurting, my legs was hurting,” he testified.

When he went to school in a short sleeved shirt the next day at East Middle School, the principal observed bruises, and he was sent to the school nurse, who alerted the Youngstown Police Department and Mahoning County Children Services.

CLOSING ARGUMENTS

Closing arguments Tuesday focused differing opinions by the defense and prosecution as to how severe the boy’s injuries were and the defense calling the boy’s behavior “out of control.”

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Yozwiak said arguments by attorney Jim Wise, who represents Hill, “were used to try to validate the use of force that was used on (the victim). Let’s be clear. That was child abuse,” Yozwiak said.

The “American Academy of Pediatrics defines physical abuse as anything that is more than a superficial redness on the skin lasting a few minutes,” Yozwiak said. “Here we had deep lacerations to this child’s back, torso, his arms that clearly goes beyond what is acceptable parental discipline.”

Yozwiak mentioned the testimony of Youngstown police detective Hannah Short on reasons children run away. “It is typically their home environment,” Yozwiak said.

“We heard testimony … about how Maleka Curry and Christopher Hill would go out and drink, they would come home, they would argue,” Yozwiak said. “This happened on a regular basis, so much so it was happening on school nights, so much so that there were at least 10 other reports as testified by Detective Short of Maleka’s (four) other children running away,” Yozwiak said.

“The defense wants to portray the injuries on the boy as warranted, but I don’t think it matters how many times a child runs away from home, they should never be met with serious physical harm, which is exactly what we have here,” Yozwiak said.

He noted that on Monday, he had the boy raise the back of his shirt to show the judge the marks still there more than 10 months after he received them. “From where I was standing, he had two very distinct lines on his back, consistent with the worst of the injuries we saw in photos,” Yozwiak said.

The judge mentioned in his remarks that seeing the marks on the boy’s back helped establish the severity of the injuries.

The boy described the pain he felt as “stinging, as burning,” and two medical professionals testified that “to suffer these types of injuries would necessarily entail severe pain and substantial suffering,” Yozwiak said.

Wise then gave his closing argument, calling the boy’s behavior “not only unruly, he was out of control.” The boy ran away and was taken into custody by police twice on May 9, 2024, Wise said, adding that he did not believe there was any testimony of the boy receiving “deep lacerations.”

“You know judge, this morning I watched the news and a 14-year-old is charged with murder,” Wise said of a Sunday killing on Rhoda Avenue on the West Side of Youngstown. “What’s going on in Mahoning County with our juveniles? They’re out of control. This child was out of control,” he said of Curry’s son. “He also told us his mother tried to take away his electronics, took away his games, blocked his internet,” Wise said.

The boy was taken into custody by Boardman and Youngstown police May 9, 2024, Wise said, and “At no time did he ever tell any of them ‘Don’t take me home. It’s horrible at my house.’ What’s he say? ‘I don’t want to go back to the group home.'”

Wise said, “The law allows corporal punishment, and that is what was done here. It wasn’t prolonged. It wasn’t excessive. There was no testimony that there was permanent disfigurement,” Wise said. “My client was trying to get the child’s attention. That’s it. This is not a felonious assault. There was no serious physical harm.”

Wise said the boy never sought medical attention for his injuries. “The school takes him to the doctor,” Wise said of the Child Advocacy Center at Akron Children’s Hospital. “No medical treatment was rendered.”

The emergency room doctor who saw the boy the day after he was injured said the boy “complained of no pain, just some soreness.” Wise said he does not think prosecutors proved “any type of temporary, serious disfigurement or permanent disfigurement.”

Walter Ritchie, Curry’s attorney, said during his closing argument that corporal punishment administered “the right way can be very painful,” adding, “This situation would have been very challenging for any parent. And you have a lady who has four other children and getting no help from any of the fathers.”