A 16-year-old Florence County boy is being tried as an adult this week. Prosecutors say the teen beat a 5-year-old boy he was babysitting, causing a brain injury that killed the child.
Tuesday, the 8-year-old brother of Shanquan Picket testified in court about what he says happened the night he last saw his 5-year-old brother. He told jurors he watched through a crack in a door as Jermaine Mayweathers beat Shanquan with a belt in July.
The child told the jury Mayweathers then called EMS. During cross examination, we learned the child originally told a police interviewer that Shanquan fell from a bunk bead and bumped his head.
Shanquan's mother, Deborah Williams, also took the stand. She told jurors she left Mayweathers to watch her two sons, while she went to work. Williams said she had no idea what happened until she came home and talked with Mayweathers.
"You have to take Shanquan to the hospital (he said), and I said - I have to take him to the hospital? So, when I went to run to the back of the house, he said no Shanquan's already at the hospital, so I ran out the door."
Williams told jurors she drove straight to the hospital, where she found her son lying on the table with all sorts of tubes connected to him. Shanquan later died from his injuries.
If convicted, Mayweathers faces 20 years, to life in prison.
Wednesday, the state continues its case with testimony from forensic investigators and doctors.
