Placer DA: Roseville mom sat on 9-year-old son, torturing him as dad did nothing to stop it

Prosecutors in a Placer County murder case allege that a Roseville mother sat on her adopted 9-year-old son and beat him continuously for about 40 minutes as the boy’s father did nothing to stop it.

Cory Albert Blakley, 38, and Kimberly Rachel Blakley, 37, were the adoptive parents of the boy who has been identified as Cyrus Blakley. His parents are accused of murder, torture and child abuse in his death in February.

The prosecutors argued that both parents were responsible for the boy’s death and the pain he suffered, according to a filed court transcript of a three-day preliminary hearing in April in which evidence and testimony was presented.

Deputy District Attorney Andrew Braden, one of the prosecutors in the murder case, told the judge that the boy’s mother, who weighed about 210 pounds, tortured her son by sitting on the child, depriving him of oxygen and “continually beating” him.

“She sat on a child’s chest ... on a cushion and repeatedly beat him for approximately 40 minutes, beat him until he no longer made a sound,” Braden said in court.

The Blakleys had seven children — two biological children, five who were adopted. They all lived together in a home on New England Drive, just east of Sunrise Boulevard.

Cameras found in Roseville home

Roseville police investigators found several Ring-brand cameras that were motion-detected and installed in most of the rooms of the home, including the four bedrooms, the garage, a laundry room and the living room camera. Prosecutors alleged that Cory Blakley deleted the video captured in the living room camera, so they couldn’t see everything that happened to Cyrus on Feb. 2 in the living room but they could hear it.

Braden argued the mother was “exacting revenge” on Cyrus after he told his classmates or school officials that his dogs had died, and he was forced to take the pets outside.

The prosecutor told the judge that the mother could be heard in the video repeatedly saying Child Protective Services was going to come and take the children away because Cyrus didn’t care about the family. Braden said the videos show the mother sitting on the boy, his legs on the ground, beating him as he tried to break free.

“There are moments in the video where (Cyrus) begs for her to stop, telling her that he cannot breathe,” Braden told the judge. “She continues and does not stop and even threatens to shove something in his mouth.”

Brad Whatcott, an attorney from the Public Defender’s Office representing Kimberly Blakley, argued in the April hearing that his client was not seeking revenge but was “trying to discipline” the boy.

“Now, I do agree that the discipline, the spanking, the sitting on (Cyrus), that was misguided, irrational, unjustifiable disciplining of a child,” Whatcott argued, according to court documents. “But I don’t believe that amounts to an expectation that someone’s going to die from those actions.”

The defense attorney told the judge that there wasn’t any evidence that showed the mother “intended to cause any sort of cruel or extreme pain.” Whatcott said his client’s demeanor completely changed after she realized Cyrus was no longer responsive.

The boy’s February death

About 6 p.m. Feb. 2, officers and firefighters responded to a medical aid call at the family’s home. The officers found the 9-year-old boy unresponsive. He died three days later at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

Prosecutors are alleging the parents’ abuse caused the boy to become comatose. According to the criminal complaint, Cyrus suffered brain injury and paralysis.

The Blakleys remain in custody at the Placer County jail, where they’ve been held without bail since their Feb. 7 arrest.

Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Ow, who also is prosecuting the case against the Blakleys, argued in court that Cyrus’ father clearly didn’t participate in the boy’s beating, but Cory Blakley was present for the entire — or most of the — beating.

“If he didn’t see it all, he heard it, just like we could see in all the videos from various positions in the house,” Ow told the judge. “I don’t know what’s worse, watching it or hearing it. You can hear the child gasping for air. You can hear the force of the strikes being inflicted on him.”

The prosecutor said the audio also documented the number of times Cyrus was hit as the boy apologized to his mom.

“You can hear (the) mother taunting him, and you can watch dad as he putters around in the kitchen drinking his soda, talking to his kids about turning off and on the lights,” Ow said in court.

She argued that Cory Blakley was laughing at videos that his wife was apparently watching as she allegedly sat on the boy on the living room couch. Ow told the judge that the father failed to perform his legal duty as a parent in conscious disregard for his son’s life, even closing a window near the couch as the boy yelled for help that could’ve alerted a neighbor to potentially help the child or call police.

Barry Zimmerman, a defense attorney hired to represent Cory Blakley, argued that his client did not participate in the child’s beating and that the father’s failure to act could not be attributed to the proximate cause of the boy’s death.

“His failure to call 911, his failure even if he were to have said ‘Stop,’ would she have stopped?” Zimmerman argued in court. “She was out of control.”

The defense attorney told the judge that the boy died “at the hands of Kimberly.”

In arguing for his client, Zimmerman told the judge: “There’s no evidence that my client encouraged her to hold (Cyrus) down in that fashion or intended for him to die.”

Roseville parents ordered to stand trial

On April 17, Judge Jeffrey Penney ordered the Blakleys to stand trial on the murder, torture and child abuse charges, along with felony charges of dissuading witnesses. The prosecutors allege the parents told the children not to speak truthfully to investigators. The Blakleys also face misdemeanor charges of child endangerment.

Ow told the judge “there’s no doubt” Cyrus’ siblings will be negatively and adversely affected by watching “their brother be killed by their mother in front of their own eyes.”

The Blakleys appeared briefly last week in Placer Superior Court. Zimmerman is filing a motion challenging Penney’s ruling in the preliminary hearing. A hearing for the father’s defense motion was initially scheduled for June 26, but Judge Stephen L. Mock postponed that hearing until July 12 at Zimmerman’s request.