A woman and her boyfriend who lived in Hawthorne were convicted Wednesday, July 2, of inflicting injuries leading to the death of her 7-year-old daughter in 2021.
Airport Superior Court jurors deliberated for little more than a day before finding Ida Brockman, 34, and Malachi Whalen, 33, guilty of first-degree murder and torture in the death of Brockman’s daughter, Amaiya Dawson.
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Also, Brockman was convicted of child abuse resulting in death, while Whalen was convicted of assault on a child causing death.
The trial lasted nearly two months.
Brockman and Whalen had taken Amaiya to the emergency room of a Willowbrook hospital on Sept. 9, 2021, while she was unresponsive, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said following the announcement of charges.
They were arrested and charged with murder that month after hospital staff noticed the girl had suffered “multiple injuries that were inconsistent with statements made by the mother and her boyfriend,” said Deputy Grace Medrano, an agency spokesperson.
Detectives searched the couple’s apartment, found additional evidence and arrested the couple, Medrano said.
The girl died of acute respiratory failure and aspiration pneumonitis – a lung injury caused by inhaling foreign substances – with blunt-force trauma listed as a significant condition, according to a medical examiner’s report.
Brockman and Whalen were tentatively scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 12.