Sentenced: Boyfriend Charged In Mercer Child's Death Faced Previous Charges 23 Years Ago

[Sugar Cookie]

A man charged in the death of a 2-year-old boy in Mercer County also faced child abuse charges 23 years ago in Raleigh County.

John Colan Powers, 46, is charged with second-degree murder, death by a parent, guardian or custodian and child abuse resulting in serious injury in the death of Joseph “JoJo” Garbosky III.

The toddler’s mother, Candice Jones, 31, is charged with death by a parent, guardian or custodian and child neglect resulting in death.

In the Mercer case, Powers reportedly body slammed the child into a bathtub, inflicted a third-degree burn on his arm and engaged in abuse that resulted in several broken bones, retinal hemorrhages, brain bleeds and subdural hematomas/blood clots, according to a criminal complaint filed by West Virginia State Police Sgt. M.D. Clemons.

Jones witnessed the abuse, but did not attempt to physically intervene, Clemons testified at a preliminary hearing last week in Mercer County Magistrate Court.

According to court documents obtained by the Daily Telegraph, Powers was indicted by the Raleigh County Grand Jury in October of 1995 for felony child abuse resulting in injury and felony child neglect.

A criminal complaint also filed in October of 1995 by Beckley Police Department Detective J.S. Shumate cited significant injuries to the victim, who was also 2 years old.

“The child has burns and abrasions to the forehead, both hands, buttocks, back area and the top of his head,” the criminal complaint states. “The child had bruising to the neck and chin area, chest area, penis area and various locations on his legs.”

Shumate wrote in his complaint that Powers advised the injuries occurred when the child fell on a furnace and some acorns.

However, the complaint also notes a physician said, “These injuries coincide with child abuse and the injuries could not have occurred as the defendant advised.”

Powers was the primary caretaker of the toddler when the injuries occurred, Shumate stated in the complaint.

More than two decades ago, the mom of the Raleigh County victim was a single, working mother who met Powers through family and church. She had no idea that the casual dating relationship would one day result in her toddler being held to a floor furnace and burned on his head, body and hands.

The mom asked not to be identified in this story. Although her son is now an adult, she has not told him of the abuse he suffered as a toddler.

“I’d known him (Powers) for a month or two,” the mom recalled during a telephone interview. “We were not living together, but he stayed at the house a couple of times. We were seeing each other, but not tied to each other.”

One morning, the mother found herself without a babysitter and Powers offered to watch her son.

She agreed, but later arrived home to a nightmare.

“I came home and my son was on a pillow on the couch, and he was wearing a sweatsuit, and it was hot as hell outside and inside,” the mom said. “He jumped up and clung on to me, and I saw his face. I saw the burns on his forehead and looked down and saw his hands — they were burned to the bone.”

The mother said she rushed toward the door with her child to take him for medical treatment, but Powers attempted to block the escape.

“He slammed the door shut but I finally got out and ran down the hill to my car,” the mom remembered. “I had (my child) on my lap.”

Powers followed the mother to the car, and jumped in the passenger seat. He told her she wasn’t going anywhere, but the mom continued on to the doctor’s office, reiterating to Powers that she was going to get medical help for her son.

“If I could have wrecked my car and killed him that day I would have,” the mom said.

Upon arrival at the physician’s office, the mom said she ran inside with her son.

“I said, ‘Take my kid and call the cops,” the mom recalled. “I started telling them, ‘Please, check my son.’”

Police were called, and Powers was arrested in the parking lot.

The mother said Powers told her that her son had fallen on a floor furnace. “The burns that were on his hands were so deep, they (physicians) said there was no way … they said if he had fallen he would have gotten up quickly. They could tell there was pressure put on his hands.”

Prosecutors offered Powers a plea deal in the case, the mom said, and he ultimately served 13 months behind bars for child neglect.

Referring to the current Mercer case, the mother said, “So now here’s a little boy that had to die because the state hasn’t done a damn thing to keep him locked up.”

During the preliminary hearing for Jones last Thursday, it was again noted that the Mercer County child, known as “JoJo,” suffered broken bones and burns more than two weeks prior to when his mother and Powers finally sought medical treatment for him.

Prosecuting Attorney George Sitler asked Sgt. Clemons during the hearing if the two sought medical attention for the toddler in the weeks after the injury.

“No,” Clemons answered. “Ms. Jones stated she voiced opinion about it, and Mr. Powers said they didn’t need to be in the system — meaning CPS.”

Sitler again asked Clemons if the two sought any medical care for the child’s injuries.

“There was no medical attention for the chid in the past four to five months,” Clemons responded.

JoJo’s injuries came on the radar for authorities when Jones and Powers brought the toddler to Bluefield Regional Medical Center on Aug. 8. He was subsequently transported to a Charleston hospital. At that time, hospital staff notified Child Protective Services and Clemons.

It was reported during the hearing that Jones and Powers had lived in Mercer County for six months. Prior to that, Jones and JoJo resided in North Carolina with her father and stepmother.

“They (Jones and Powers) apparently met online,” Clemons testified. “I think they met on Facebook.”

Jones then acquired a mobile home in Mercer County, and she and Powers moved in together.

Following the hearing, JoJo’s grandparents displayed cellphone photographs of the child when he was living in North Carolina. In the photos, the toddler is smiling and alert — grinning with a face full of birthday cake icing and posing in his Easter suit.

In contrast, more recent photos of the toddler shared on social media show a solemn child with dark circles under his eyes.

Boyfriend charged in Mercer child abuse case faced previous charges in Raleigh

PRINCETON — A man charged in the death of a 2-year-old boy in Mercer County also faced child abuse charges 23 years ago in Raleigh County.

www.bdtonline.com

 

[Old Man Metal]

“They (Jones and Powers) apparently met online,” Clemons testified. “I think they met on Facebook.”

Jones then acquired a mobile home in Mercer County, and she and Powers moved in together.

Just don't, people.

 

[Sevens My Charm]

 

[Prettypink513]

Fry both of em

 

[George Spelvin]

On top of everything else, this shit is just plain bad manners.

 

[Sejanus]

Met online.
Livin' in a trailer.
Now a tyke is dead.

This country song blows.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

A mother who regularly flouted the importance of good parenting on social media admitted to standing and watching as her boyfriend called her two-year-old son a ‘r**ard’ and then beat him to death for struggling with potty training, a court heard last week.

Mother-of-two Candice Jones, 32, struck a deal with prosecutors last Thursday which saw her plead guilty to child neglect in exchange for a prison sentence of between three and 15 years.

Jones told investigators that she was too scared of her lover John Powers, 47, to prevent him from viciously battering her young son Joseph ‘JoJo’ Gaborsky III

The court heard how Jones watched on as Powers savagely beat JoJo with a belt and body-slammed him into a bathtub after the toddler suffered a mishap during potty training.

Reportedly further incensed by the boy’s ‘squirming’, Powers then slammed the two-year-old face-first onto the floor, before shaking him violently ‘with both hands by the throat and back of his head’ for between three and five minutes.

JoJo wouldn’t receive medical attention for another two weeks. Jones claims she didn’t call an ambulance or summon police because ‘Powers repeatedly threatened to kill her’ and she was afraid of him.

The little boy tragically died two days after arriving at hospital, having suffered numerous broken bones, retinal hemorrhages, brain bleeds and blood clots.

On her Facebook page, Jones had reportedly posted numerous photos of JoJo, and her daughter, whose age is not known, and preached the importance of good parenting.

In the ‘About’ section of her profile, she also wrote: ‘i have two wonderful kids a son and daughter. I am separated. the best things in my life are these kids. there (sic) my whole world,’

Jones' father David Hart, whom she lived with before moving in with Powers, voiced disappointment at his daughter’s sentencing, insisting she should be jailed for longer as she has so far failed to show remorse for her actions.

‘We’re not happy with it. I don’t think Candice really realizes the severity of what’s happened,’ Hart told the Telegraph. ‘You know, we lost a grandson, and still today she has not shown any remorse when we talk to her or anything on any of this. And I just don’t think the sentencing is right.

‘I think she needs more time. She needs to know the severity of the crime she’s done. I don’t know what else to say about that, I really don’t,’ he continued.


Speaking about Powers, Hart added: ‘We’re not happy with either one of them. I think they ought to release him to me. That would be taken care of.’

During a separate hearing last Thursday, Powers - who was previously jailed for 13 months in 1995 for battering the two-year-old son of a former girlfriend - entered a ‘best interest’ plea into death of a child by parent or guardian.

The plea is not an admission of guilt, rather a concession that the defendant acknowledges there's sufficient evidence to convict them. He now faces a sentence of between 15 years and life in jail.

‘You’re saying you don’t know what happened, won’t admit what happened,’ the judge Mark Wills said to Powers about best-interest pleas, adding, ‘Is that why you are entering this plea, to avoid being sentenced to more time in the penitentiary than you would under this plea agreement?’

‘Yes, sir,’ Powers responded.

The 47-year-old claimed he cannot remember how he battered JoJo to death.

Court documents say that Powers reportedly slammed JoJo into a bathtub, inflicted a third-degree burn on his arm and engaged in heinous abuse that resulted in several broken bones, retinal hemorrhages, brain bleeds and blood clots.

The third degree burn was inflicted on JoJo when powers held a ready meal heat pack against his arm, prosecutors said.

Mother, 32, admits to watching as boyfriend beat son, 2, to death

Candice Jones said she was too scared of her lover John Powers, 47, to stop him from battering her young son Joseph 'JoJo' Gaborsky III at her home in Princeton, West Virginia, in August 2018.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Sugar Cookie]

A West Virginia mother and her boyfriend have been sentenced in the beating death of the woman's 2-year-old son.

John Colan Powers, 47, and Candice Jones, 32, both of Green Valley, were charged in the August 2018 death of Jones’ 2-year-old son, Joseph Garbosky III.

Judge Mark Wills sentenced Powers to life in prison and sentenced Jones to three to 15 years in prison, the maximum time under her plea deal, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported.

Powers entered a best-interest plea earlier this month to death of a child by parent or guardian, and pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury earlier this month. In a best-interest plea, the defendant does not admit guilt. Powers said he did not remember beating the boy.

Jones pleaded guilty to child neglect resulting in death. Jones witnessed the abuse, but did not attempt to physically intervene, authorities said.

Mother, boyfriend get maximum prison time in toddler's death

PRINCETON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia mother and her boyfriend have been sentenced in the beating death of the woman's 2-year-old son.

www.register-herald.com

 

[GoneWest]

That POS hillrat mother should be serving life right with her dick. I have no hope for prison justice or our countries whacked inconsistent sentences.