Bond for a Paulding County father was set at $30,000 after a judge Tuesday determined there was probable cause to charge him with murder and child cruelty in the Oct. 11 death of his 12-year-old son.
Shayaa Yusef Forbes, 32, told a 911 operator that he found his son, Eric Forbes, unconscious in the bathtub.
“I thought he was in the tub, but when I went in to try and see him… He was a little bit underwater. His head was, like, bobbing,” Forbes told an operator in a 911 recording obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The child died later that evening at a local hospital and Forbes was charged with felony child cruelty. Emergency responders found signs of severe abuse on the child’s body, according to Cpl. Ashley Henson of the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office.
The boy was a sixth grader at McClure Middle School. Additional child cruelty charges and a murder charge were later brought against Forbes after the state medical examiner ruled Eric’s death a homicide.
A cause of death was not released, pending the results of additional testing.
Investigators have not released details about what they believe happened in the home on North Springs Drive near Acworth. But the child showed signs of repeated abuse, Henson said.
“The male juvenile, who had multiple bruises, bite marks, lacerations, and other marks that are consistent with physical abuse, appeared to have endured abuse for quite some time,” Henson said.
Eric’s younger sister, Erica, has been in state Division of Family and Children Services custody since the night her brother died, according to police. The children’s mother, Ashlei Majors, later attempted to get custody of Erica, but because neither Majors nor Forbes had an attorney present, a Paulding judge delayed the hearing.
Forbes’ case still must be presented to a grand jury. There are no other court hearings planned at this time.
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