Child's death: Alleged cult member freed from jail

The Examiner - November 17, 2008

by Ben Nuckols | AP

BALTIMORE - In an unusual development for a murder case, an alleged member of a religious cult accused in the starvation death of a toddler was released from custody Monday and will remain free with minimal supervision until trial.

Steven L. Bynum, 42, is charged with first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in the death of 1-year-old Javon Thompson. According to prosecutors, Bynum and four other members of a religious group called 1 Mind Ministries - including Javon's mother - conspired to deny food and water to the boy in December 2006.

Cult members were angry that Javon did not say "Amen" after meals, authorities said. After he died, they allegedly put his body in a suitcase, which was kept in a shed behind a home in Philadelphia for more than a year before police found it in April.

Defense attorney Catherine Flynn said she argued at a bail review hearing Friday that Bynum was not a flight risk because he traveled to Baltimore from New York to turn himself in when he learned of the charges he faces. She also said Bynum, who has no criminal history, does not present a continuing threat to public safety.

Baltimore Circuit Judge A. John Howard agreed, ordering Bynum released on his own recognizance. Bynum had been held without bail. He remained in the city jail over the weekend because of a paperwork delay but was freed Monday afternoon, said Rick Binetti, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Prosecutors said they could not recall another defendant charged with first-degree murder who was released on his own recognizance and described an audible gasp in the courtroom after Howard issued his ruling.

"We were just absolutely astonished," said Margaret T. Burns, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore State's Attorney's office.

The only restrictions placed on Bynum were that he avoid contact with his co-defendants and check in periodically with the Division of Pretrial Detention and Services, attorneys said. Bynum plans to remain in Baltimore, Flynn said.

Bynum had been ordered held without bail in two previous bail reviews. Prosecutors argued Friday that his bail status should not change because there had been no change in circumstance, such as a reduction to the charges against him or the continuation of a trial date.

Flynn merely asked Howard to set "a reasonable bail" and acknowledged it was "rare" for someone charged with first-degree murder to be released on his own recognizance. But she told the judge she believes her client has been overcharged.

"The allegations are that people didn't feed the child, but there's no allegation that my client affirmatively participated in that agreement," Flynn said. "In fact, there's evidence that he disagreed with that conduct and argued about it."

Flynn noted that Bynum did not have custody of Javon and was not responsible for his welfare.

"The state is focusing on the fact that he didn't call police, he didn't call (social services). But that's not a crime," Flynn said.

Four other members of the now-defunct 1 Mind Ministries - Ria Ramkissoon, Javon's mother; Queen Antoinette, the alleged cult leader; Trevia Williams; and Marcus Cobbs - remain held without bail. Like Bynum, the other four are charged with first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death.

The five are scheduled for trial Jan. 28.

This article was found at:

http://www.examiner.com/a-1695650~Child_s_death__
Alleged_cult_member_freed_
from_jail.html

Mind Control?

From the Dr. Phil Show website:

Wednesday - November 5, 2008

Mind Control?

It’s hard to believe, but in America alone, there may be as many as 5,000 religious groups preying upon the weak and vulnerable, and all in the name of God. Dr. Phil’s guests have warnings for you and your children. Seeta says when her 18-year-old daughter joined a religious group called 1 Mind Ministries, she left home with her 7-month-old son and never returned. Soon afterward, Seeta received the horrifying news that her grandson was found dead and her daughter was being charged with murder. Learn the disturbing details of this case and why Seeta says her daughter is innocent. Then, meet Norman, a college-educated husband and father who moved his family hundreds of miles to join a religious group that came with a price he says he never expected. Norman says he was enticed to join the House of Yahweh because of his strong desire to be part of a group. The House of Yahweh is a mysterious organization out of Abilene, Texas, led by Yisrayl Hawkins, a man who some say has more than 30 wives. As Norman and his family prepared for the end of the world, as Yisrayl Hawkins preached, Norman says he eventually realized why they were selected to join the group. You won’t believe the reason he gives! Then, meet a former wife of Yisrayl Hawkins, and learn the warning signs of mind control.

This article was found at:

http://www.drphil.com/shows/

Memorial service held for toddler in 'cult' murder case

Baltimore Sun - August 30, 2008

By Sumathi Reddy |Sun reporter

A portrait of 15-month-old Javon Thompson sits at the alter during a memorial service at March Funeral Home in Baltimore. (Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett / August 29, 2008)

There was no casket, no bouquets of flowers, no pews filled with people.

Instead, there was a small wooden toybox and pictures of a 15-month-old baby drinking his bottle and playing, and the dozen mourners who came to say good-bye to him.

"I fought hard to save this little boy's life ... but nobody would help me," said Seeta Khadan-Newton, Javon Thompson's grandmother. "So I was fighting a fight by myself which ended with me losing my grandson and my daughter where she is now."

Javon's mother, Ria Ramkissoon, 21, is among five people Baltimore homicide detectives have charged with first-degree murder in connection with the toddler's death. Javon died while in the care of a religious group, 1 Mind Ministries, that police say was a cult. Police say the group denied the toddler food and water because he would not say amen after meals. He died in a West Baltimore apartment in late 2006 or early 2007.

Yesterday at March Funeral Homes in Northwest Baltimore, Khadan-Newton wept as she spoke of the grandson who loved his rubber ducky and swing set and who brought her more joy than anything else. "I loved this baby more than anything in my life," she said. "For him to die the way he died is eating up my heart."

"I don't know why I feel so guilty," she added. "Just because I wasn't there the whole time, that I wasn't there to help him, to save him."

Khadan-Newton has said she called Baltimore's Division of Social Services at least four times between April and December of 2006 because she was concerned about the whereabouts of her grandson and the conditions he was living in. But DSS officials say they only received two calls and that the complaints about how Javon was treated weren't specific enough to investigate.

Police say members of the cult put the boy's remains in a suitcase and brought it with them to Philadelphia in February 2007. They left the suitcase with an elderly man they befriended, and then several members eventually moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., police say. Authorities found the suitcase and the boy's remains in April.

The Rev. Anna V. Nelson read a letter Ramkissoon wrote to her son that was printed on the back of the program for the memorial service. "I want to protect you from all harm, but I have to let you grow and learn on your own," she read. "Remember, no matter what, whether things are good or bad, I want you to know: You're my son, and I love you. Forever and ever."

Nelson offered the family words of consolation. "We would not like to think that it was the will of God what happened to this boy," she said. "I would like to think that this boy died for us. This baby has left a message here for the whole world.

"This baby died so that they could be exposed," she said, referring to 1 Mind Ministries.

At the end of the service, Javon Thompson appeared in a stream of video snippets. Javon in his swing. Javon with a toy turtle. Javon cooing as his mother played with him.

"Bye-bye Javon," says a female voice in the background, as Javon rubs his eyes. "Say bye-bye."

This article was found at:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city
/bal-baby0829,0,4379683.story

Cult prayed for lifeless boy's resurrection

CNN - August 18, 2008

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- After denying Javon Thompson food and water for two days because he wouldn't say "Amen" after meals, the 1-year-old's caretakers waited for a divine sign that their message had been heard: a resurrection.

For more than a week, police say in charging documents describing the scene, the child's lifeless body lay in the back room of an apartment.

Queen Antoinette, the 40-year-old leader of a group that called itself 1 Mind Ministries, brought in her followers and told them to pray. God, she said, would raise Javon from the dead.

Instead, Javon's body began to decompose.

The boy's mother, 21-year-old Ria Ramkissoon, and four other people authorities say are members of the group face first-degree murder charges in his death.

Ramkissoon's mother and attorney say that she was brainwashed by a cult and acted only at the group leader's will.

"The members of this cult, who were more than twice her age, were calling the shots," Ramkissoon's attorney, Steven D. Silverman, said after a court hearing last week. "She bought the program hook, line and sinker."

Court documents describe a group that operated secretly, dressed all in white and eschewed medical care. Antoinette, also known as Toni Sloan or Toni Ellsberry, called her followers "princes" and "princesses." And she and her followers were possessive of the children under their care.

The group never had more than a dozen members. It did not operate out of a remote compound, and the specifics of Antoinette's religious beliefs are unclear. However, it meets the definition of a cult, said Rick A. Ross, who has studied cults for 26 years, provided expert testimony and staged hundreds "interventions" to get people out of cults.

"It fits the profile of a classic cult in the sense that it's a personality-driven group and that Queen Antoinette is that animating personality and central defining element of the group," Ross said.

Children have been killed in similar groups for failing to follow cult teachings, Ross said, and that appears to have been the case with Javon, who was viewed as a "demon," according to police statements supporting the murder charges.

Ramkissoon's association with the group began shortly after Javon was born in September 2005, according to her mother, Seeta Khadan-Newton. She gave birth at 18, and was struggling to care for her baby while working and taking college classes, she said.

Khadan-Newton, who moved with her daughter from their native Trinidad when the girl was 8, described Ramkissoon as sweet-natured and trusting. Khadan-Newton is Hindu, but her daughter became a Christian. Ramkissoon's church betrayed her trust, her mother said, when its pastor pleaded guilty to molesting boys in the congregation.

Ramkissoon was friends with Tiffany Smith, then a member of the group, and 1 Mind Ministries began recruiting her, Khadan-Newton said. After spending time with cult members, Ramkissoon started worrying she was going to hell.

"My daughter was very religious. She was into the Bible -- obsessed with it," Khadan-Newton said. "They (were) going to show her the right way. She got sucked into it."

Ramkissoon left home with Javon in April 2006, and Khadan-Newton, who keeps a collage of photos of the child in her apartment, has not seen them since. But Khadan-Newton hasn't wavered in her belief that her daughter was not responsible for her grandson's death.

"She was brainwashed," she said.

Fearful for her grandson, Khadan-Newton began a drawn-out, heartbreaking effort to rescue him and his mother. She pleaded with police, social workers, judges and politicians to intervene, but she said she always got the same response: Since the child was with his mother, who left home willingly, nothing could be done. She sued for custody, but her daughter could not be found to be served with papers.

"I fear for (my grandson's) and my daughter's safety, you see. They are in a cult. I haven't seen or heard from my daughter since April," Khadan-Newton wrote in a letter to Circuit Judge Audrey J.S. Carrion about a month before the child died.

State Secretary of Human Resources Brenda Donald said her agency has records of a couple of calls about Javon, including one in October 2007 from a person who said he was a relative of the boy and one several months later from a health care worker who knew a cult member.

Investigators went to an address they were given by the first caller but found it was vacant, Donald said. She said they weren't able to follow up because the caller would not leave his name or contact information.

There was no documentation of calls from Khadan-Newton, Donald said.

"It's a tragic, tragic situation and we responded with the information that we had in a responsive way and unfortunately it didn't change the outcome," she said.

Meanwhile, after cult members abandoned hope of Javon's resurrection, they switched to Plan B, police say. Antoinette burned Javon's clothing and mattress and put his body in a green suitcase. She stuffed the suitcase with mothballs and fabric softener sheets, and opened it occasionally to spray disinfectant inside.

In early 2007, cult members stored the suitcase behind a home in Philadelphia and relocated to New York City, according to police, who found the suitcase more than a year later, the body still inside.

Not knowing her grandson was dead, Khadan-Newton traveled in February 2008 to the Brooklyn apartment where the group was staying, and spoke to her daughter through an intercom. Ramkissoon called her by her first name, instead of Mom, Khadan-Newton said, and there were long pauses after Khadan-Newton asked questions about Javon's whereabouts.

"She said, 'My son is fine,"' Khadan-Newton said. "They (were) coaching her and telling her what to say."

In part because of Khadan-Newton's contact with a social worker in New York, authorities there tracked down Antoinette and two other cult members wanted in a separate case: Trevia Williams, 21, and Marcus A. Cobbs, 21. They were later charged in Javon's death. Ramkissoon returned to Baltimore and was living in a homeless shelter when she was arrested. A fifth person charged in the case, Steven Bynum, 42, is being sought in New York.

Ramkissoon called her mother last Sunday from the city jail. At first, Khadan-Newton didn't realize that she was speaking to her daughter -- a conversation that reinforced her belief that Ramkissoon remains under the group's control.

"She sounded empty, like an empty shell. There was no emotion," Khadan-Newton said. "I was shocked. I didn't even recognize her voice. ... It's not the same person."

This article was found at:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/18/cult.slaying.ap/?iref=mpstoryview

Records say cult killed baby because he was a ‘demon’

The Baltimore Examiner - May 14, 2008

by Luke Broadwater & Stephen Janis


BALTIMORE - Cult members concluded Javon Thompson was a “demon” after the baby wouldn’t say “amen” at mealtime and starved him to death, witnesses told homicide detectives, according to records obtained by The Examiner.

“The child was abused because Javon was noncompliant with the existing rules of the ‘cult,’ ” the records state. “The child was also viewed as a ‘demon.’ ”

Investigators believe 18-month-old Javon’s body was found last month in a suitcase in Philadelphia two years after his death.

The grandmother of Javon said the Maryland Department of Social Services failed to respond to several calls she made to warn it the baby might be in danger.


“They told me it’s not their job,” said the grandmother, Seeta Khadan-Newton, 59, of Baltimore. “They told me I need to get the proof and bring it to them.”

Khadan-Newton said she made at least three phone calls to state officials in 2006, warning them that One Mind Ministries had custody of the baby and her daughter, Ria Ramkissoon, who was 19.

“I called and called,” she said. “I felt like everything in me was gone. I loved that little boy. I tried so hard to get him away from that cult. Nobody would help.”

Phone calls to Social Services were not returned.

In late February, Baltimore and Philadelphia police searched a shed on the 700 block of S. 13th Street and recovered decomposing human remains inside a suitcase.

Police contacted Khadan-Newton and told her they believed the remains to be Javon, but are awaiting results of DNA testing for identification.

A witness told homicide detectives Javon was “beaten, physically abused [and] deprived of food and water, which led to the child’s death,” according to Khadan-Newton and records obtained by The Examiner.

Khadan-Newton said investigators told her cult members grew angry after Javon would not say “amen” at mealtime, even though the baby was just learning to say basic words.

A witness also told police Javon had grown so skinny he was a skeleton and that he died in December while his mother was holding him in her arms.

Two other witnesses told Philadelphia homicide detectives that they “witnessed the death of Javon,” who was placed inside a green suitcase.

After his death, Javon was placed on a mattress, on which cult members said God would resurrect him from the dead, documents state.

Cult members then took the child in a suitcase to Philadelphia, where they stored Javon’s dead body in a shed of an acquaintance, police said.

“It’s so cruel,” Khadan-Newton said. “It’s so cruel.”

Last week, police arrested three suspected cult members in New York: Queen Antoinette, 39, Marcus Cobbs, 21, and Trevia Williams, 20, on an outstanding warrant from an alleged assault in 2006.

They have not been charged in Javon’s suspected death.

“I don’t want to be cruel, but I want them to feel pain 10 times more than my grandson did when he died,” Khadan-Newton said. “They have ruined my daughter’s life. Forever. They took away that little boy from us.”

This article was found at:

http://www.examiner.com/a-1390156~
Records_say_cult_killed_baby_because_
he_was_a__demon_.html