PEMBROKE — A 16-year-old has been charged with the murder last month of a 4-year-old child.
Lt. Kathy Torre, the head of the Sheriff’s Office’s Juvenile Division, said Raekwon Miguel Locklear, of 168 Front St., Red Springs, was babysitting Dustin Oxendine and two other small children at their Pembroke home on July 12 when Oxendine was killed. Torre said an autopsy showed that the child died of “blunt-force injuries.”
According to Torre, the results of an investigation by Detective Jimmy Hammonds were taken to a grand jury last week and Raekwon Locklear was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and felony child abuse. He was arrested Friday at his home and is in the county jail under no bond on the murder charge and $50,000 bond on the child-abuse charge.
Raekwon Locklear is also charged with misdemeanor child abuse and assault on a child under 12 for injuries suffered by two other children in the home. He is under $10,000 bond on those charges.
Torre said that the accused is a friend of the children’s mother, 28-year-old Jessica Oxendine, who was at work when her child was killed. According to previous reports, the mother called 911 after she returned to her home at 65 Allendale Road and found that Dustin was not breathing.
My question is why has she not been charged with complicity to murder, failure to obtain immediate medical treatment for Dustin, misdemeanor child abuse and assault on a child under 12 for injuries suffered by two other children in the home, and for repeated child molestation of young boys?
The death penalty is the only appropriate punishment in this case.