William Brian Meeks III. Photo courtesy Viktorya Meeks.
William Brian Meeks III. Photo courtesy Viktorya Meeks.

Samyia-Lee Ervin was walking in the parking lot of a Long Beach liquor store when the man she’d been spending the day with rushed up to her.

He had Ervin’s 2-year-old son in his arms. The boy was having a seizure.

Little William Meeks III had been alive and well less than a minute earlier when Ervin walked into Big John’s Liquor to check her lotto ticket on June 14, 2019.

Charles Davis, the 32-year-old man now carrying William in his arms, would later tell detectives the boy had been acting normal, not even upset, just frowning a little bit when his mom stepping out of the car they’d taken to the liquor store at Daisy Avenue and 10th Street.

But moments later, there was panic and a rush to the hospital where doctors would tell Ervin her son had suffered severe head trauma, something she said shocked her so much that she screamed when she saw the bump that had developed on his head.

According to police, William had been alone in the car with Davis for 52 seconds before the mad dash to the hospital.

Now, more than a year after William’s death, the mystery of what happened in that short span is the subject of a murder case.

Charles Davis, of Inglewood, in court, charged today with murdering a 2-year-old boy outside a liquor store in Long Beach last summer in Long Beach, Wednesday, January 22, 2020. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.
Charles Davis, of Inglewood, in court, charged with murdering a 2-year-old boy outside a liquor store in Long Beach. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.

Other than Davis himself, nobody saw and no video captured what happened in that 52 seconds. Security camera footage shows the car in the parking lot with no apparent shaking or struggle inside, although prosecutors allege that’s because of the low video quality.

Therefore, prosecutors are left relying almost solely on William’s injuries as evidence.

At a hearing last week, the doctors laid out their findings to a judge for the first time. Over the span of two days, they explained the technical aspects of William’s injuries before the prosecutors asked for a verdict on whether there was enough evidence for them to hold Davis for a full trial where jurors would determine his guilt.

On Thursday, Dr. Zuhha Ashraf testified William had few injuries visible to the naked eye: a bruise on his forehead from a monitor at the hospital and another faint purple bruise on his forehead.

Under the surface, however, the boy had 13 hemorrhages all over his head. His brain was entirely swollen, fragments of brain matter had traveled down his spinal cord, there was hemorrhaging around the soft tissue of his eyes and bleeding and pinpoint hemorrhages within his eye and eyelid. Another doctor would describe them as “too many to count.”

Dr. Sandra Murray, a pediatrician who specializes in child abuse, was called in to see William when he was brought to the hospital. In court, she described examining William, who was intubated and didn’t require sedation, but wasn’t responsive to touch and his pupils were fixed and dilated.

William was pronounced braindead by doctors and taken off life support June 16, 2019, two days after he was admitted to the hospital.

William’s cause of death was blunt head and neck trauma, according to Ashraf, the deputy medical examiner for the county coroner’s office, who performed his autopsy. His death was homicide, Ashraf said.

Both Ashraf and Murray testified they believe what caused William’s brain injuries had to have happened within a short timeframe before he started seizing because his injuries would’ve immediately caused a coma, seizures and a loss of consciousness.

“Some object impacted William’s head causing injury,” Asraf said. She said it’s unlikely that the 13 injuries happened at different times and there are no natural diseases that would have caused this. “I could expect a child to bump their head maybe once or twice, but I would not expect them to bump it 13 times.”

Police said their investigation centers around this parking lot outside Big John’s Liquor, where they were called to help the boy. Photo by Jeremiah Dobruck.

She added that William would not have been able to function after getting those injuries, leading her to believe that his injuries happened within the time Davis was alone with William.

Based largely on the medical evidence, Davis is facing charges of murder and assault on a child causing death.

“Someone inflicted these injuries on William,” Judge Judith Meyer said after hearing the doctors testify

Davis’ defense attorney agrees that someone inflicted the internal wounds, but he believes it was someone else who had access to William for a much longer period of time.

“I think it’s absurd that Charles Davis caused that level of damage to a child in 50 seconds,” Javon Blacknell said after the hearing. “This is sustained abuse.”

Blacknell said that Davis has children of his own and no history of abuse toward them or William. He pointed to the way William’s injuries are spread over his head. He argued a spur-of-the-moment attack in 52 seconds would’ve been centralized in one area of his head.

“[Davis] just had the misfortune to be the one who was with the child when he had the seizure,” Blacknell said.

Both of William’s parents, who are separated, deny they ever physically punished William. The boy also stayed with his grandmother during the day while his mom was at work and she also did not use physical punishment, Ervin testified.

As the doctors described the boy’s condition, William’s father, also named William Meeks, sobbed in the back of the courtroom with his family. A bailiff quietly brought him tissues and water.

Ultimately, Judge Meyer decided there’s enough evidence to have Davis face a full murder trial where jurors will weigh the evidence.

“I think its reasonable to suspect Mr. Davis committed this crime, I think it’s also reasonable to suspect the mother, but Mr. Davis is the defendant here,” Meyer said.

As Meyer made her decision, people in the audience were no longer able to hold their emotions in. In the front row, Davis’ family gasped and burst out in disagreement. In the back row, William’s father and his family broke down crying.

Meyer ordered them all out and told bailiffs to stand outside the courtroom to “keep the peace” in the hallway. She reduced Davis’ bail from $2 million to $1 million after Blacknell argued that his bail was excessive.

With the hearing complete, another bailiff handcuffed Davis and led him away.

Valerie Osier is the Social Media & Newsletter Manager for the Long Beach Post. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @ValerieOsier