Teen's Starvation Ruled a Homicide

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Title:	Teen's Starvation Ruled a Homicide

Summary:	PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The starvation death of an 18-year-old autistic man has been ruled a homicide, and authorities are focusing their investigation on family members who were caring for him while his father was jailed for unpaid parking tickets.

Source:	AP Online
Date:	03/20/2002 05:23
Price:	Free
Document Size:	Very Short (0577 words)
Document ID:	EA20020320960000016
Subject(s):	National
Author(s):	JOANN LOVIGLIO, Associated Press Writer
Document Type:	Articles & General info

Teen's Starvation Ruled a Homicide

Story Filed: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 5:23 AM EST

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The starvation death of an 18-year-old autistic man has been ruled a homicide, and authorities are focusing their investigation on family members who were caring for him while his father was jailed for unpaid parking tickets.

Brahim Dukes died from malnutrition and dehydration on Dec. 29, two weeks into his father's 38-day jail sentence, the Medical Examiner's Office concluded. The teen-ager weighed 94 pounds at the time of his death, down from 130 pounds previously, authorities said.

Dewey Gillespie, 44, the teen-ager's father and main caregiver, was jailed by a Traffic Court judge for unpaid traffic tickets. He was released two days after his son's death.

Gillespie said he went to court on Dec. 13 with $750 in cash and begged the judge not to send him to jail, saying he was the person who best understood the needs of his son, who could not speak and needed assistance using the bathroom and dressing himself.

Gillespie owed more than $2,000 on 11 unpaid traffic citations, most for driving without a license.

``I begged,'' Gillespie said Tuesday. ``I asked to get on a payment program and he said, 'There is no payment program. If you don't have it all you've got 38 days in jail.'''

The presiding judge, Robert M. Shaffer, did not recall Gillespie offering to make a partial payment or referring to his son's disability, Traffic Court Administrative Judge Fortunato Perri said.

``You all hear all kinds of stories in this court,'' Perri said. ``Had this gentleman or even someone from the prison brought this to my attention, I would have asked to reduce the order.''

After his arrest for driving without a license in 1997, Gillespie was put on a payment plan but defaulted on $1,558 of what he owed, Perri said. Under the $40-a-day formula that traffic judges use in determining sentences for people who don't pay their fines, Gillespie was sentenced to 38 days, Perri said.

There was no telephone listing for Shaffer, and he could not immediately be reached for comment.

Gillespie also disputed the coroner's ruling that his son died of starvation, saying the teen-ager's stepmother would never have neglected him. He also said his son was naturally very thin and at 5-feet-9, weighed only around 98 pounds, not 130.

``I have been with this woman for 17 years and she has taken care of Brahim like one of her own,'' said Gillespie, who has nine other children ranging in age from 1 to 13. ``This is an 18-year-old boy who can get what he wants if he's hungry. He probably just missed me and took sick.''

Gillespie said his wife called him at the prison Dec. 27 to say his son wasn't eating. The next time he was able to call, on Dec. 29, he discovered Dukes was dead.

``My son did not starve to death,'' he said. ``Something is wrong here and if I have to have another autopsy done, I'll do it to clear my family's name.''

Dukes' biological mother has battled longtime drug problems and has not been part of his life, Gillespie said.

Police are conducting an investigation involving family members who lived in the home, Philadelphia police spokesman Sgt. Roland Lee said Tuesday. He would not elaborate.

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