Beckley PD, witnesses detail gruesome scene (WITH VIDEO)

Nov. 3—Officers, testifying Wednesday in the trial of a Beckley man accused of wielding a hammer to beat to death a 7-year-old boy, said the defendant was covered in blood and gore, which dripped from his hair, beard and chest when they arrested him shortly after the alleged assault in March 2021.

Also called to testify Wednesday was Felicia Brown, the mother of the child who has killed. During her testimony, Brown described the attack she claimed to have suffered at the hands of Rashad "Rico" Thompson on March 18, 2021, when she says he stabbed her multiple times in the chest and head.

As a result of his alleged actions against Brown, Thompson, 35, is on trial for the attempted first-degree murder of Brown and also faces charges of malicious wounding and two counts of domestic battery.

He is also charged with first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death of Brown's 7-year-old son, Tre-shaun Brown. Witnesses said Thompson beat the boy to death with a hammer.

Brown was the first witness to take the stand Wednesday morning in what was the prosecution's first day of witness testimonies, following nearly two days of jury selection.

During her testimony, Brown described the events that led up to her alleged attack by Thompson as well as the wounds she sustained on March 18, 2021.

In her cross-examination by Thompson's defense attorney, Stanley Selden, Brown's credibility was called into question.

Selden questioned Brown regarding differences between her statements given to a Beckley police detective following the incident and her testimony on Wednesday.

He also asked several questions regarding whether Thompson was ever physically abusive to Brown or any of the children in their home.

Brown said Thompson was never physically abusive to any of the children. She then began talking about at least two instances when she alleged Thompson was physical with her, but she was quickly cut off by Selden, who asked if any police reports had been filed regarding these alleged prior incidents.

"I did not," Brown said.

At the time of the incident, Brown said she lived with Thompson at Lewis Ritchie Apartments on Industrial Drive in Beckley with their biological 2-year-old daughter as well as Tre-shaun and Brown's 5-year-old son.

She said the two met in 2016 while working at Tamarack and began living together sometime between 2017 and 2018.

Prior to describing the events that occurred on March 17 and 18 of 2021, Brown was asked by Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield to describe her son Tre-shaun. Brown said Tre-shaun was born with a virus that caused him to have "major learning disabilities." She said he was later diagnosed with autism, was nonverbal and was not potty trained.

"As a 7-year-old he was like a baby still," Brown said. "...Physically he could walk, climb and jump but mentally he couldn't talk or tell me anything."

Despite his disabilities, Brown said Tre-shaun was a very happy kid who loved watching YouTube videos, jumping on the trampoline and "loved to hug people."

On the night of the attack, Brown said Tre-shaun was asleep on a couch in the living room on the first floor of their apartment.

Brown said her 2-year-old daughter was also home at the time and on one of the two couches in their living room, but her 5-year-old son was not at the apartment.

Around 11 p.m. on March 17, 2021, Brown said Thompson came home after working a full day at Hobby Lobby in Beckley. She said they then sat down to eat dinner in the kitchen, which is also downstairs and located behind the living room.

During their dinner, Brown said they both consumed alcohol and quickly got into an argument regarding colds their children had.

Brown said the argument became "very heated," so she stepped outside the apartment to smoke a cigarette and text a friend about the argument.

When she returned, Brown said she sat back down at the table in the kitchen with Thompson, who then began to complain about her being on her phone.

Brown said Thompson then stood up as if to throw something away in the trashcan located behind her but instead grabbed her from behind and chocked her "so hard that our kitchen chair snapped in two."

Brown said Thompson then grabbed a knife out of a kitchen drawer, sat back down at the kitchen table, and called his mother on speaker phone to tell her "he loved her."

"He hung up the phone and he swirled the knife on the table staring at me telling me 'B-I-T-C-H, you're gonna die tonight, you won't make it out of this kitchen alive,'" Brown said.

By now, Brown said it was roughly 2 a.m. After hearing Thompson threaten her life, Brown said she started to call a friend for help.

"When he seen me try to press the call button, he come across the room and smacked my phone off the table — well off the counter — it shattered in the floor and he began stabbing me," Brown said.

"He stabbed me in my stomach and my chest and then I lost consciousness. When I came back to, I was laying on my back, in front of my refrigerator; he was on top of me stabbing me repeatedly over and over and over very violently."

At that point Brown said their 2-year-old daughter came into the kitchen, saying, "Daddy, stop, Ddaddy, stop."

Brown said she tkicked Thompson to get him off of her and ran out of the kitchen, into the living room and out of the front door to get help from a neighbor.

While at the neighbor's house, Brown said she stripped down to her underwear and used her shirt to wrap around her head to soak up the blood that was pouring out of her wounds.

Brown said she then screamed for her neighbor, who was later identified as Rose Scalf, to go to her apartment and get her kids.

"Because at this point, I only thought he wanted to harm me so I thought maybe if she went, she could get my children out safely," Brown said.

Brown said Scalf twent to her apartment to retrieve the 2-year-old and then went back a second time to retrieve Tre-shaun.

"She went back to get my son and I just remember hearing her gasp," Brown said. "And she would not tell me what she'd seen; she would not tell me what happened."

Scalf would later testify Wednesday that during a trip back to Brown's apartment, she saw Tre-shaun in the living room lying on a couch, presumably dead.

During Brown's cross-examination, which lasted nearly two hours, Selden picked apart every detail of her testimony given during the prosecution's questioning.

He questioned Brown about the specifics of the argument she had with Thompson that night, why she ran out the front door instead of the back door in the kitchen, why she didn't grab her children when she left and who brought her 2-year-old daughter to Scalf's apartment.

Selden then pointed out that in statements to a Beckley police detective after the incident, Brown said she was the one who brought her daughter to Scalf's apartment but while testifying Wednesday Brown said Scalf was the one who went to get the 2-year-old girl.

Selden said Brown also told this same detective that Thompson had "never harmed her" before the night of March 18.

"So were you lying?" Selden asked Brown.

"I didn't tell him about the (other) attacks," Brown said.

Toward the end of his two-hour cross, which included a 15-minute break at the request of the judge, Selden returned to questioning Brown about the specifics of what she did after she left her apartment and fled to Scalf's apartment.

Selden started to ask Brown about what another neighbor, who was also outside that night, may have seen, but his question was quickly objected to by Hatfield, who accused Selden of improperly questioning Brown's credibility.

"This is not how you impeach a witness, in the event this is what Mr. Selden is trying to do," Hatfield said.

The judge sustained this objection.

Shelden then made assertions that Tre-shaun was already dead before Brown ran out of her apartment and that she was the one who attacked Thompson.

Brown said both of these statements were false.

In the afternoon, two Beckley police officers and a deputy with the Raleigh County Sheriff's Office were called to the witness stand to testify about the events surrounding a 911 call placed from the apartments and the subsequent arrest of Thompson.

Corporal William Gravely of the Beckley Police Department said he was the one who placed Thompson in handcuffs after knocking on the locked back door of the apartment and being let in by Thompson.

"Thompson opened the door, covered in blood," Gravely said. "So I stepped in. I said, 'What happened?' (Thompson) said, 'I lost it.'"

After cuffing Thompson, Gravely said he walked him to the front of the apartment and out the front door.

"As we walked through the apartment, I noticed a hammer laying on the floor," Gravely said. "And as we scanned the room, as we're walking out, I saw a subject laying on the couch with a large amount of blood coming from his head."

Matt Price, a sergeant with the Raleigh County Sheriff's Office, said he was stationed at the front door of the apartment when Gravely brought Thompson out.

Price described Thompson's appearance as "very, very gruesome."

"He had on a pair of shorts ... he did not have a shirt on," Price said. "He was covered from head to toe — his hair, in his beard, on his chest — covered in blood and gore."

Price said he then walked into the apartment where he saw a young boy, lying on a couch with his face "facing me as I walked in."

Price said a "copious amount of blood" was on the couch surrounding the young boy, who was Tre-shaun.

In the cross-examination of these officers, which was conducted by Thompson's second defense attorney, Matthew Victor, the officers were asked why they immediately assumed Thompson was the suspect and Brown, whom they saw outside, was the victim.

Victor also asked why Thompson was never taken to the hospital if he was covered in blood.

Gravely said he asked Thompson if he had any injuries and Thompson said "No."

The case is being tried in front of Raleigh County Circuit Court Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick. It will resume Thursday at 9 a.m.