A Massachusetts man who was convicted in the fatal beating of his young son has been granted parole with conditions.
According to the Massachusetts Parole Board, between May 27 and 28, 1983, then 36-year-old Richard Mayes beat his son Lawrence Jackson Ritchon (Onaje) with a split plastic bat, his open hands, and his closed fists, just days before the child’s third birthday. After beating the child, Mayes took him to the bathroom, removed his bloodied clothes, and attempted to clean the blood from them in soap and bleach. Mayes then put the child back into bed. When he went to get Onaje the next morning, he found him lying on the bed “asleep” with a clear wet spot on the bed. Mayes got Onaje out of bed and into the bathroom, where Onaje vomited and went limp. Mayes called Onaje’s mother for help, and the two began to perform CPR on Onaje. When he didn’t respond, Mayes left the apartment to get his cousin. He then told his cousin to drive Onaje and his mother to the hospital. Onaje was not breathing, nor did he have a pulse, when he arrived at the hospital. Mayes remained behind, told the remaining children to stay in their beds, and then went to hide and smoke marijuana in the attic.
After interviewing Onaje’s mother at the hospital, police went to the apartment and found the three remaining children lying in their beds awake. The children stated that Mayes was the man who hit Onaje with the Wiffle ball bat. Police interviewed other witnesses, including a neighbor, who overheard the beating. While being interviewed at the police station, Mayes confessed to the beating of Onaje and further disclosed that he had been hitting the children for the last two years, including at least one severe incident when he knocked out the three front teeth of another son. Onaje died four days later, on May 31, 1983, having suffered fatal brain hemorrhaging from multiple blows to his skull. At the time of the medical examination, Onaje’s body was covered with numerous bruises to the chest, stomach, back and legs…