BERKELEY, Calif. — A child’s body found near the Berkeley
Marina Sunday morning may be Jashon Williams, the missing 17-month-old son of a
woman found beaten and shot to death Friday.
Police declined to publicly speculate on the body’s identity
until a coroner’s investigation is finished, but several members of Jashon’s
family rushed to the scene when they heard of the discovery and said they were
sure it was him.
“We put two and two together,” said Karim Toney,
whose sister, 23-year-old Zoelina Williams, was Jashon’s mother. “We just
wanted the baby back.”
Police launched a search for the boy after his mother’s body
was found in a parking lot near Berkeley’s Aquatic Park around 4 a.m. Friday.
About a mile away Sunday morning, two kayakers near the marina spotted a
child’s body floating near the shore and called 911.
The marina had not been included in the police search, but
waterways and large pipes do connect the two areas, Berkeley Police Lt. Andrew
Greenwood said. Police scoured the area after the body was found but turned up
no new evidence, he added.
Representing the family to a group of news reporters, Toney
said police had not confirmed much about the body, “but we all know it’s
Jashon.”
As Toney spoke, several women from the family gathered near
the shoreline, watching police work around the scene of the body’s discovery.
Those women broke into screams and sobs when an officer lifted a small bundle
from a docked boat, carrying it into a nearby coroner’s van.
“It was so small. It looked like a bag of trash,”
said Veronica Ellis, Williams’ cousin. “That’s not one murder, but two.
That’s a person with no heart. I just don’t understand it: an innocent little
baby that didn’t do anything.”
On Friday afternoon, police arrested 38-year-old Curtis
Martin for Williams’ killing. Police and family members later said they
discovered Martin had been in a relationship with Williams.
Malcolm Lewis, Williams’ uncle, said a sister of Martin’s
had been watching the toddler since the night of Oct. 31. Oakland police
believe Jashon was with his mother when she was killed, Officer Jeff Thomason
said.
Much of Williams’ family lives in West Oakland and said they
recognized Martin as a neighbor, but had no idea the two were in a
relationship.
“She would know not to bring a guy like that around,
because we’re strict like that,” said Brandan Dixon, a cousin to Williams
who said she was like a sister to him.
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Martin has a criminal record dating back to the early 1990s.
In 1994, he was arrested in the beating death of 3-year-old Devin Brewer of
Oakland, the son of his girlfriend at the time. He served six years in prison
for the crime. In 2008, he was arrested for violating a court order to prevent
domestic violence. He was never prosecuted.
“What is he doing on the street?” said Afrah Toney,
a relative in Williams’ family. “He shouldn’t have been free. Who was
watching him? Where was parole? He’s just roaming the neighborhood,
chilling.”
Farita Toney, another relative, said Williams was quiet by
nature anyway, but, “There’s also pressure of not wanting to be judged by
your family, that would keep her from letting people know about him.”
Williams was also struggling with the death of her father,
who died two months ago of cancer; her mother died in 2002 from cancer, as
well.
Sakinah Toney, also a member of the family, said she thought
Williams was trying to become more mature for her baby.
“Zoelina was trying to be an adult and prove herself
and handle all her business,” she said. “He got her where she was
staying at home and never seeing her family. He was isolating her. It’s a scary
pattern you see in abusive men.”
“I’m trying to come up with a way to prevent this from
happening again, but there’s no formula for this,” she added. “The
bottom line is you make a choice: I want to live this way, or I want to live
that way. But we do need more programs to help young women get away.”
Martin is scheduled to be arraigned in Alameda County
Superior Court Tuesday morning, Greenwood said.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
