Boy describes closet ordeal

An Oklahoma City mother was ordered Wednesday to face a child abuse trial after her scar-covered son testified she beat him for years, sometimes locking him in a closet for days at a time or leaving him tied up with duct tape “like a mummy” in a hallway.

LaRhonda McCall and Steve Hamilton walk under guard Wednesday to their preliminary hearing in Oklahoma County District Court. PHOTO BY PAUL B. SOUTHERLAND, THE OKLAHOMAN

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To read past stories about the case, go to NewsOK.com and search for “LaRhonda Marie McCall.”

LaRhonda Marie McCall, 37, often frowned and shook her head during her son’s testimony. She once muttered her son was making some things up. She later wept briefly.

Also ordered to trial was Steve Vern Hamilton, 39, a taxi driver who told police he and the mother are best friends.

McCall is charged with 36 child abuse or child neglect counts. Hamilton is charged with 26 child abuse or child neglect counts. They are charged separately in some counts and together in others.

Bernell McCall, 15, spent hours in court, calmly describing for Oklahoma County Special Judge Fred Doak how he was abused shortly after he began living with his mother in 2006. He said before that he had been living with a cousin in New Jersey.

The boy’s plight attracted national attention after he ran away from his family’s Oklahoma City apartment in September. Bernell, who was then 14, said he escaped from the closet and left after arguing with a sister.

“I just couldn’t take it anymore,” he said.

He testified Wednesday his mother often beat him with extension cords, sometimes choked him until he passed out, once forced him to stand naked in the snow, once cut him with a butcher knife and once set him on fire.

He said his mother once poured sugar water on him while he was tied up in the garage. He said bugs then bit him.

He said another time he was forced to stand with twine around his neck, hands and a raised foot. “She said if I was going to put my foot down, I was going to choke myself,” he testified.

Bernell said she told him more than once she wished he was dead.

“I remember her saying, ‘Die,’ and she regretted having me,” he testified.

He said he was tied up while in the closet and once forced to stay as long as three days. He said he made a hole in the closet wall and would “use the hole” to go to the bathroom.

Bernell described being locked in the closets at two apartments where his mother stayed last year.

He said he sometimes would not be fed, and a sister would sneak him something to eat.

He estimated he has gained 40 pounds since running away.

He testified his mother and Hamilton said they were disciplining him because they thought he was stealing food or other things. “She told me she thought I was lying about stuff missing in the house,” he said.

Bernell said Hamilton abused him, too, once hitting him with a tire iron in the head.

He said he has an older sister, three younger sisters and three younger brothers, but they weren’t mistreated.

A police detective testified Hamilton and the mother admitted to some abuse.

The detective said Hamilton recalled the boy was kept in the closet 27 different days over one month last summer.

McCall has a conviction for second-degree manslaughter in New York involving a daughter’s death. The police detective, Rocky Gregory, said he asked her why she had so many children.

“She said she had all these children, different fathers, because she just wanted somebody to love her,” the detective said.

Both defendants pleaded not guilty Wednesday. Hamilton’s attorney, Mark McCormick, said, “Just like any court case, there are two sides to every story.”