DFS: Records from the state
Department of Children & Family Services show that there were
questions about the care of the children before Devonte's death,
and they received a complaint that the boy's older sister wasn't
receiving proper food and supervision. In October 2004, a friend
told Devonte's grandmother that the children were being abused.
Man convicted in toddler's death
Additional articles:
Man found guilty in death of
2-year-old (click
here)
Inmate: Suspect admits
killing (click
here)
Defense: Wallace reluctant to 'tell' on girlfriend
(click
here)
The Sanford man could get 60 years
in prison for killing Devonte Mincy.
December 13, 2006
DAYTONA BEACH -- A jury found a
32-year-old Sanford man guilty Tuesday
of killing his fiancee's 2 1/2-year-old son while baby-sitting the boy
last
year.
Quintin Tellafair Wallace II, an
organist for his parents' church in Daytona Beach, could face up to
60 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child
abuse in the death of Devonte Mincy. He will be sentenced Jan. 4.
Prosecutors tried to convict him of
first-degree murder, but the verdict shows that the jury thought the
death was negligent rather than premeditated, Wallace's attorney Rob
Sanders said. A first-degree-murder conviction would have put him in
prison for life because prosecutors decided not to pursue the death
penalty.
"We are pleased with the time the
jury spent in deliberation, and we feel like they scrutinized the
evidence," Sanders said. "It's at least a small victory."
Assistant State Attorney Colleen
Taylor was not disappointed with the verdict. "Clearly, he is being
held responsible for the child's death," she said.
Neither Wallace's family nor the
child's mother, Sharika Mincy, would comment after the verdict was
announced. Wallace's father, who has the same name, is pastor of
Deliverance Temple Church of God in Christ in Daytona Beach.
Devonte died in May 2005 from
severe blunt-force trauma to the back of his head, which caused a
skull fracture and brain swelling, according to the medical
examiner. The boy also suffered bruises to his chest and buttocks
and bleeding to several internal organs, records show.
The day he died, Devonte was at his
Daytona Beach home with a younger sibling and Wallace while his
mother worked, according to witnesses. There were no other adults at
the house.
That afternoon, Wallace called his
fiancee to tell her that the boy had been hit by a bicycle, and when
she came home from work, she took him to the hospital, according to
witnesses.
Jail inmate Michael Painter
testified that Wallace told him at the Volusia County Branch Jail
that he killed the boy because the boy interrupted him while he was
doing cocaine.
During closing arguments Tuesday,
Assistant State Attorney Matt Foxman reminded jurors that the
medical examiner and other doctors contradicted Wallace's claim that
the boy's injuries were accidental. Both he and Taylor agreed that
the medical evidence was the crucial element for the conviction.
"These injuries were too severe to
be sustained by a fall or by being struck by a bicycle," Foxman told
the jurors, while reminding them that none of the injuries included
tire marks.
However, defense attorney Gayle S.
Graziano pointed out that some of the doctors didn't agree on the
time frame for the injuries, which could have been inflicted as
early as the day before. She also noted that other witnesses
described seeing Sharika Mincy strike the child in the past.
"There isn't any evidence Quintin
Wallace inflicted these injuries, let alone intentionally and
willfully," Graziano said. "There is another word for reasonable
doubt in this case: Sharika Mincy."
She offered one alternative view --
that the mother had already inflicted a skull injury on the boy the
day before, and that the bike collision compounded those injuries.
Foxman conceded to jurors that
Sharika Mincy, who pleaded no contest to child neglect in a separate
court case, wasn't a candidate for "mother of the year," but said
those other disciplinary incidents paled in comparison to the fatal
blows. According to the neglect charge, she is accused of knowing
that her fiance was abusing the boy but doing nothing to prevent it.
She hasn't been sentenced.
Records from the state Department
of Children & Families show that state investigators questioned her
at least twice before Devonte's death about the care of her
children. In May 2003, the department received a complaint that the
boy's older sister wasn't receiving proper food and supervision. In
October 2004, a friend told Devonte's grandmother that the children
were being abused.
DCF records show that investigators
found no cause for concern and no confirmation of abuse, and
administrators have said they did not think the case was
preventable.
Devonte's autopsy later showed that
the child suffered several prior injuries, including broken ribs,
missing teeth and scarred legs, according to records.
Ludmilla Lelis can be reached at
llelis@orlandosentinel.com or 386-253-0964.
_____
December 13, 2006
Man found guilty in death of
2-year-old
By JAY STAPLETON Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- A church organist accused of killing his
girlfriend's 2-year-old son escaped a life sentence Tuesday when
jurors found him guilty of manslaughter.
But prosecutors said Quintin
Tellefair Wallace -- on trial for first-degree murder -- could still
be locked up for most of his life for his role in the May 20, 2005,
death of Devonte Mincy.
Along with the manslaughter
conviction, the jury deliberated for more than four hours before
they found Wallace, 32, guilty of aggravated child abuse. He could
face up to 60 years in prison when sentenced, prosecutors said.
"We're not disappointed," said Matt
Foxman, one of two prosecutors who presented the case to jurors for
six days of testimony in Circuit Judge Julianne Piggotte's
courtroom. "He's being held responsible for this child's death;
that's the important thing."
The toddler showed signs of a prior
head injury and broken ribs that had healed. He died the day after
he was taken to the hospital in a coma with a fractured skull.
Wallace was home alone with three children when he noticed Devonte
going into seizures. He told police the child suffered the injury
earlier when he was hit by a bicycle in front of their Caroline
Street home.
When he testified Friday, Wallace,
the son of the pastor of the Daytona Deliverance Church of God,
recalled the accident and denied hurting the child that day. Wallace
said both he and the child's mother had hit the child in the past,
but stood by his story that the unknown bicyclist caused the fatal
injury.
"He hit him with the bike and to be
honest with you, I know he got hit, but to pinpoint everything, I
can't really do it. I grabbed him real quick, 'You OK? You OK? You
OK.?' " Wallace said.
Prosecutors focused on medical
evidence that placed the fatal injury in a one- to six-hour window
while Wallace was watching him. Doctors testified the child could
not have survived the blow to the back of the head, which would have
rendered him unconscious immediately, prosecutor Colleen Taylor
said. "Scientific medical evidence," Taylor said, put the blame on
Wallace alone. "There's no other explanation."
In testimony that the defense
strongly opposed, a fellow inmate charged with having sexual contact
with a 16-year-old girl said Wallace told him he killed the child
because he'd spilled his cocaine.
The credibility of that testimony,
which defense lawyer Gayle Graziano said offered the only word on
exactly how and why the crime was committed, appeared central to the
jury's decision. By choosing guilt of the lesser manslaughter
charge, instead of first- or second-degree murder, the jury
convicted Wallace for an act of negligence, rather than
pre-meditated or intentional murder.
"The jury didn't believe the
snitch," said Rob Sanders, one of his defense lawyers.
The lengthy trial was difficult --
both legally and emotionally -- for attorneys on both sides of the
courtroom.
"I don't think either side is
happy," Sanders said. Neither side called the child's mother to the
stand as a witness.
Sharika Mincy, 26, has pleaded no
contest to a neglect charge and will face 15 years in prison when
she's sentenced in January.
jay.stapleton@news-jrnl.com
_____
December 08, 2006
Inmate: Suspect admits killing
By JAY STAPLETON Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- A man facing prison for having sexual contact with
a teenager came forward as a snitch in a murder trial Thursday to
share what the accused church organist told him about why he killed
his girlfriend's 2-year-old son.
Michael Eugene Painter, 34, who
could get up to 30 years in prison if convicted, said Quintin
Wallace told him while the two were locked up at the Volusia County
Branch Jail that he struck and killed Devonte Mincy because the
toddler spilled his cocaine.
"He said he was doing cocaine, and
didn't want to do it in front of the baby," Painter said, explaining
how Wallace confessed the crime to him while the two were playing
chess at the jail. "He said, 'I killed him, I killed him, I killed
him.' He said he hit him in the head."
Painter made a swinging motion with
his arm, showing the motion he says Wallace made.
Rob Sanders, one of Wallace's
defense lawyers, tried to discount Painter's testimony by suggesting
he made up the story to get less punishment. "I'm just trying to do
the right thing sir," Painter said when confronted by Sanders in
Circuit Judge Julianne Piggott's courtroom. "I think killing your
son over cocaine, especially a 2-year-old boy, is something they
need to know about."
Wallace, 32 and unemployed, faces
up to life in prison if convicted of the slaying. The toddler's
mother, Sharika Mincy, 26, has pleaded no contest to a neglect
charge and faces up to 15 years. Wallace told detectives the boy's
injury was the result of being hit by a bicycle, but investigators
say the accident never happened.
Painter's account of what Wallace
told him offered jurors the first glimpse of why the child was
slain. Until then, prosecutors had presented evidence and testimony
from police investigators, family members and medical experts to
show Wallace was the sole suspect because he was the only adult in
the Caroline Street home on May 19, 2005, when Mincy suffered the
fatal blow. The boy died the next day.
Jailhouse snitches are common in
murder trials but can be unreliable. A recent study by Northwestern
University's Center on Wrongful Convictions found snitch testimony
is the No. 1 reason for wrongful convictions in death penalty cases.
Defense lawyers Sanders and Gayle
Graziano argued Wallace should be acquitted because Painter was the
only person who offered "who, where and how" the crime was
committed.
The trial is expected to end next
week.
jay.stapleton@news-jrnl.com
_____
December 07, 2006
Defense: Wallace reluctant to
'tell' on girlfriend
By JAY STAPLETON Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- The church organist accused of fatally breaking the
skull of his girlfriend's toddler was reluctant to tell police about
abuse the boy suffered at the hands of his mother, a defense lawyer
told jurors Wednesday.
"I don't want to sound like I'm
telling on her," Quintin Tellefair Wallace, 32, told detectives in
one of three voluntarily videotaped interviews he had after Devonte
Mincy's death. But because Wallace was alone with the child before
he and Sharika Mincy, 26, took her son to the hospital in a coma,
Wallace was the focus of the murder investigation that led to his
arrest, detective Tammy Pera testified.
"In spite of his reluctance, he
told you specific instances," defense lawyer Gayle Graziano said,
referring to examples of rough spankings, a kick and slap Wallace
said the boy's mother inflicted on the boy. "Did you investigate
that?"
"Yes," Pera answered. ". . . she
said they both chastised the child."
But Pera and other detectives
focused their questioning on Wallace's explanation that the boy was
playing on the sidewalk when he was hit by an unknown man on a
bicycle. Wallace told police the boy acted "fine" after the
accident, but later stiffened up and appeared "lifeless."
Wallace is charged with the May
2005 killing of the 2-year-old boy at his girlfriend's Caroline
Street home. Prosecutors say the child suffered internal injuries
and a fractured skull from a blow to the back of the head that would
have been equivalent to a two-story fall. The child also showed
signs of an older skull fracture and broken ribs that had healed,
investigators said.
The defense claims the case is
circumstantial against Wallace, and that police never investigated
Sharika Mincy as a possible suspect in the killing. Many factors
remain unknown, Graziano said, including exactly where and how the
fatal blow was inflicted.
Prosecutors insist the medical
evidence shows the injuries were not caused by a bicycle. So far,
they have shown a series of videotaped interviews in which Wallace
described the hard-knocks life of the little boy. A medical examiner
has testified the fatal blow was inflicted from three to 12 hours
before the boy was taken to the hospital and caused by being hit or
thrown against a flat object like a wall or floor.
In the video tapes shown to the
jury, Wallace described a stressful life in the home, as he tried to
feed and watch three children while looking for a job. With no car,
he and Mincy shuttled the children on foot and by bus to doctors'
appointments and neighbors' houses. Mincy left the house early that
day for her office job, but took the bus home when Wallace called to
tell her he was worried the child was hurt.
Mincy has pleaded no contest to a
charge of child neglect causing death and will face up to 15 years
when she's sentenced in January. The trial in Judge Julianne
Piggotte's courtroom is expected to wrap up next week.
jay.stapleton@news-jrnl.com
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