A one-year-old baby was forced to endure immense “horror and pain” on his first birthday.
Little Hoss Wayne Benham was sexually tortured and physically beaten by his own mother and her boyfriend, prosecutors have revealed.
Baby Benham suffered from around 89 injuries across his body. 38 of the injuries were found on his head and neck.
According to an autopsy report, the head and neck injuries appeared to have been caused by blunt-force trauma.
Both his eyes had around four injuries and 19 were found on his legs and arms.
It has been reported that his genitals and anus also had some injuries which indicate that the child had been sexually abused as well.
Behnam was taken to a hospital by the couple where he was declared dead by the medical staff on March 11, 2014.
As reported by the Cullman Times, the mother Crystal Ballenger and her partner Jeffrey Hugh Brown, 38, were then arrested and charged with capital murder and sexual torture.
Both the parents also tested positive for several drugs such as MDMA, amphetamines, and methamphetamine.
Jeffrey Brown’s trial has been adjourned at the request of his lawyer on Monday and has been rescheduled for some time in September.
It is not known when Ballenger will stand trial.
If they are convicted, both the mother and her partner could face the death penalty.
After the pair were indicted in 2015, Cullman County District Attorney Wilson Blaylock shared, “It’s really unbelievable and just hard to read what happened to this infant child. His last 36 hours were spent in horror and pain.”
According to court documents, Ballenger and Brown had initially told the authorities that the baby had drowned in a bathtub.
Ballenger said she also saw Brown giving her son Tobasco sauce to make him stop crying and that she would give the baby cough medicine as he was teething.
