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Dad Charged With Beating 6-Year-Old Son To Death

(Photo by JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)

Bradley Devlin General Assignment & Analysis Reporter
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A father has been charged with murdering his own son in North Carolina.

Authorities say 30-year-old father Devon Nelson beat his six-year-old son to death over the weekend, local outlet WFMY reported. Nelson was charged with first-degree murder and felony child abuse. Nelson’s girlfriend, 24-year-old Tamara Corbett, was also arrested and charged with felony child abuse and accessory after the fact, according to WFMY.

Nelson allegedly brought his son, Malaki Nelson, to the High Point Medical Center Sunday, where medics pronounced the boy dead on arrival. Authorities were notified of the boy’s death, and investigators with the High Point Police Department’s special victims and violent crimes units “quickly determined it should be treated as a homicide,” according to a news release from High Point police. (RELATED: Mom Charged With Strangling 4-Year-Old Son, Police Say)

Investigators arrested Nelson and Corbett after searching the home and vehicle Nelson used to take his son to the hospital and interviewing the pair, the release stated. Authorities also added that the Department of Social Services removed a three and four year old from the home.

After they arrested Nelson and Corbett, authorities attended the six year old’s autopsy, during which they “learned in-depth details regarding a significant history and a pattern of physical abuse,” the police’s release read. The cause of the boy’s death was “blunt-force trauma” throughout the body, the release claimed. (RELATED: Prosecutors Claim Man Killed His Son After He Discovered Fetish Photos, Defense Claims Son Was Killed By Wild Animal)

After the autopsy was complete, authorities brought the murder charge against Nelson and the accessory charge against Corbett, according to WFMY. Both remain in jail, and their bail has been set at $2 million, KIRO 7 reported.