A Christian hip-hop producer, Kody Maybir, in Australia has been sentenced to thirty-eight years in jail for killing his partner’s seven-year-old, disabled child.
He did not just kill the child. He subjected the boy to months of degrading abuse. He first told the police that the child died from a fall while performing a weird punishment. He made the boy try and balance on a coffee can. He told someone else:
“Levai…had fallen off a pogo stick inside the music studio where the family lived in Oatley, in Sydney’s south, in May 2013.”
When the case went to trial, he said that the boy received the injuries when they were “play wrestling.”
Last week, Justice Robert Allen Hulme said that the story was “outrageous and transparent lies aimed at minimizing his own liability.”
Also, Kodi and the boy’s mother waited twenty-four hours after the boy’s death to call emergency services.
The judge, however, found that there was no evidence of premeditation:
“[The judge] found the case was not in the worst category of murder because there was no evidence of premeditation and sentenced him to a maximum of 38 years with a non-parole period of 28-and-a-half years for murder…A post-mortem found dozens and dozens of both old and recent bruises, fractures, abrasions and scars on the boy’s 20.5 kg body — the result of months of mistreatment and cruel physical punishments in the lead-up to his death. Maybir had subjected the youngster to repeated acts of violent abuse under the guise of “punishment” in accordance with a “bizarre” discipline regime inspired by religion and a movie about Spartan soldiers called 300…Maybir exhibited ‘extreme religious views and parenting philosophies.'”
Because of the lack of premeditation, the court did not want to give Maybir a full life sentence.
Here is a news report released after Maybir was convicted:
https://youtu.be/MvCKjHEnpIc
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
