Nov. 11--A pregnant mother waited for hours to call for help after she brutally beat her 3-year-old son to death in their West Rogers Park home, according to prosecutors.
Authorities say they found Donnell Coakley in his bed around 9 p.m. last Friday, apparently hit more than 100 times with a belt and an electrical cord.
He had injuries to his buttocks, legs, back, arms and head, according to court documents. The boy had a chipped front tooth, was missing patches of hair and had a large open wound exposing muscle on his left arm, prosecutors said in court Monday.
Donnell also had burn marks on his body, and there was evidence from marks on his wrist that he had been bound, according to court records.
Paramedics took the boy to Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead at 9:55 p.m. Friday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
His mother, Tylesha Griffin, 22, of the 6500 block of North Seeley Avenue, has been charged with murder and is being held without bail.
Griffin, who is pregnant, had two other children in her care at the time of Donnell's death. Both of them have been taken into the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services. The agency is conducting an investigation into possible abuse by Griffin and the father of at least one of the children, according to DCFS spokeswoman Karen Hawkins.
Griffin previously had been investigated in 2011 for neglect and lack of supervision of children in her care.
