Mom’s friend sexually assaults, kills 2-year-old boy, Missouri officials say
.png "Two-year-old Bre’Yon Wells was sexually assaulted and killed in St. Louis, Missouri, officials said.")
Bre’Yon Wells was a 2-year-old who never met a stranger, according to his godmother.
“He was just the most adorable, sweet little thing,” Latoya Johnston told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
But on Oct. 27, his life would tragically be taken away by someone who took on the responsibility to care for him, according to a probable cause statement.
Bianca Wells left her son with 21-year-old Nicco Cotton, who was described by family as a close friend or boyfriend, while she went to work that Monday, according to KMOV.
After working a 10-hour shift, Wells received a call about her son, the outlet reported.
Bre’Yon was taken to a St. Louis hospital unresponsive, court documents said. Not long after arriving, he was pronounced dead.
Exams showed Bre’Yon had “multiple asphyxial and abdominal injuries, including a lacerated liver, and injuries consistent with sexual assault,” according to court records.
“My whole family just broke down,” Johnston told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
When investigators interviewed Cotton, he told them he bit and strangled Bre’Yon as he sexually assaulted him, according to court records.
Bre’Yon’s death was “the result of the multiple injuries he suffered during the sexual assault,” officials said in court records.
“My baby was so happy, he was so loving, he loved everybody and everything,” Wells told KMOV. “He just wanted to be a kid and enjoy life... I thought that’s what he was doing.”
Johnston told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Wells had limited support, which is why she left her son with someone she trusted as she worked.
“She was not a bad mom,” Johnston told the outlet, “she was a trying mom. There is no book on parenting. There is no foundation of knowing how to take care of a child. She was trying, and she had the love and support of people trying to help her learn.”
Cotton is charged with second-degree murder, sodomy or attempted sodomy, statutory sodomy or attempted statutory sodomy and abuse or neglect of a child.
He is being held on no bond.
