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Toddler Dies After Lengthy Torture

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
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The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

A 3-year-old Florida boy was beaten with a broomstick and burned on his genitals, face and fingers before he died, according to an arrest report charging his mother with murder.

North Miami police detectives testified that Fafane Caze admitted to burning her son’s genitals after he urinated on the floor, according theMiami Herald. Caze, 21, is in jail on attempted felony murder charges as the medical examiner’s office investigates old injuries and new ones -- including scars with the same shape as the buckle on his  mother’s security-guard belt. Police said there were “signs of abuse on every inch of his body.”

Detectives said Caze showed no emotion as she recounted abusing Ghanson Debrosse. The toddler was taken by ambulance to Jackson North Medical Center early Tuesday, but doctors said he had been dead at least three hours.

Debrosse’s siblings, ages 4 and 1, were taken into state custody.

The Department of Children and Families said Caze had been reported to the agency in 2010, when she and her boyfriend were fighting.  The agency is under fire for the recent deaths of nearly two dozen other children who had been under state supervision.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.