Khalil Wimes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Khalil Wimes was a six year old boy who died on March 19th, 2012 from horrific abuse and neglect over the course of many years at the hands of his birth parents. His parents had a history of violence and drug abuse dating back to before Khalil was born and Khalil was put into the care of his cousin Alicia Nixon when he was one week old. In her care he thrived under her love. Nixon was denied permanent custody of Khalil and he was given back to his parents but he then returned to Nixon just four days later after his parents could not look after him. Then, when Khalil was two his parents applied to have their son returned to them and, satisfied that they were off drugs and that Floyd Wimes had a job, the court allowed Khalil back into their care. Even though they had already had seven children removed from their care. Nixon said that she raised Khalil for three years ‘constantly loving him and making sure he was ok’  and that ‘his parents fought us tooth and nail until they got him back and then they killed him.’

 

In the last eight months of Khalil life, DHS staff assigned to two of Khalil's siblings spent time with Khalil during eight supervised visits at a DHS facility and the family's South Philadelphia apartment, where Khalil slept on a soiled plastic mattress on the floor of a latched and otherwise empty bedroom. The worker that has been placed on desk duty had visited the apartment and saw Khalil just two weeks before his death, but failed to recognize he was a child in great danger. In his final months, Khalil vomited in his bedroom nightly. And his parents beat him for it.

 

Floyd Wimes and waited Tina Cuffie 13 hours before they called to get any help for their son. Tina told police that she had hit her son while he was in the bathroom and he fell to the floor and became unconscious. When he was finally taken to the hospital, his body was lifeless and he had scars and bruises in various stages of healing all over his body. Floyd and Tina were afraid that hospital staff would call the police and report the abuse, so they had waited all that time, time that could have help their son, saved his life, to bring him in. Police were called. At the time of his death, Khalil weighed only 29 pounds, which placed him in the lowest 5 percent on weight charts for boys his age. Khalil, body was covered in bruises, he had 15 scars visible on his face, and there were hemorrhages beneath the skin of his head. He died and his parents were charged with murder after the Medical Examiner ruled that he died from blunt force trauma and malnutrition.

 

"He suffered from malnutrition because nobody's feeding him. I mean like any six year old child, you're depending upon your parents to take care of you. Or some other adult. I saw photographs of the body and clearly signs of abuse" Police Commissioner - Charles Ramsey

 

Wimes and Cuffie were both sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.