Augusta mom, boyfriend get prison for punishing boy to death

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A jury found a man guilty last week in the 2020 murder of his girlfriend’s son – a boy who was punished to death for getting a jelly packet of the cabinet to eat.

The boy’s mom had pleaded guilty to murder, District Attorney Jared Williams said in announcing the verdict Monday morning for Clarence Brown.

Brown was sentenced to life in prison without parole and Jasmine Camp received a life sentence in prison after pleading guilty to murdering her 12-year-old son Derrick Camp. She also pleaded guilty to four counts of cruelty to children.

EARLIER COVERAGE OF THE CASE:

Derrick died June 6, 2020, at Augusta University Medical Center, where he was taken after enduring physical punishments at his home in the 600 block of Forest Ridge Place in Augusta, according to authorities.

Derrick and the other four children in the house had to receive express permission to eat anything, Williams said.

“Malnourished and living in squalor, the boy weighed only 66 pounds at 12 years old,” Williams said Monday in a statement.

“Starving, little Derrick took a jelly packet from the kitchen to get his only nourishment for the day,” Williams said. “The defendant caught him and beat him mercilessly, in what the medical examiners would testify was one of the worst instances of child abuse they had ever witnessed.”

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Arrest warrants from 2020 state that the mother and Brown “struck the victim multiple times with an extension cord, phone charging cord, and small tree branches all over his body and struck the victim in his stomach with a closed fist causing the victim to urinate on himself.”

They also forced Derrick to “do military-style squats while holding a book and push-ups until he collapsed,” arrest warrants allege.

An arrest warrant for the mother included the allegation that she “slammed him into the wall at least twice causing his head to hit a wall, slammed him into a corner of a door frame by his hair, and kicked him in the chest twice.”

After the boy was taken to the hospital, she told them he’d fallen off a bunk bed.

Assistant District Attorney Ryne Cox of the DA’s Violent Crimes Unit said:

“The brave children who testified against the defendant are the reason we won this case. They were the shining stars of this darkest trial.”

Cox continued:

“The other four children in the home are now in safe, healthy, and loving environments. Those kids are resilient, strong, and courageous. As for the two child murderers, they will never be able to harm them again.”