2nd Half Of Video Game Death Couple Charged

ENGLEWOOD, FL — The live-in girlfriend of an Englewood man charged in connection with his 6-year-old son’s Christmas Eve death now faces criminal charges.

Ashley Cole’s arrest was announced Tuesday, Jan. 5, by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies say Cole, 22, faces a single felony charge for being a principal to aggravated manslaughter of a child. She was brought into custody Jan. 4, following a second interview with detectives.

Cole’s boyfriend, James Dearman, 31, was arrested on Dec. 28 after Sarasota deputies investigated his son’s death. According to the sheriff’s office, deputies received a 911 call around 11:10 p.m. Christmas Eve from Dearman’s home. The caller said a 6-year-old boy was unconscious and had stopped breathing. Responding deputies noted the child had bruising on his back. The boy was taken to Englewood Hospital, but was pronounced dead.

Cole was initially interviewed Dec. 28 about the circumstances that led to the boy’s death. At the time, she told detectives she and Dearman were playing video games in the living room on the night the child died. Cole, an arrest report stated, told deputies the 6-year-old and his 7-year-old sibling were told to go to bed, “which is on the floor with blankets, in a separate bedroom.”

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When the children wouldn’t go to bed, Cole told detectives Dearman forced both children to stand facing the wall.

The 6-year-old, however, was caught watching the two play video games instead, the report noted. That discovery, the report said, angered Dearman. To further punish the child, the report said, Dearman pinned his son against the couch in such a way that he could not breathe.

“The defendant ignored the victim’s pleas and both Cole and he continued to play video games,” the arrest report stated. After about 5 minutes, the child “became motionless.”

A few minutes later, Cole and Dearman, the report said, went into the garage to smoke a cigarette. When they returned, they found the child still lying on the couch. His lips “were blue,” the report said, and he was “not breathing.”

Cole told detectives she ran into the garage to pray while Dearman called 911.

The story, the report noted, was relayed the much the same when detectives interviewed the 7-year-old sibling. The child told detectives, “When Dad squished him, he got dead.”

On Dec. 31, detectives re-interviewed Cole who “confirmed her previous statement,” an arrest report noted. She, however, added that “since the initial punishment of ‘nose-to-wall’ was not working, Cole asked Dearman if they could elevate the punishment on the child victim to ‘squishing.’ Dearman agreed,” the report said.

The Sarasota County Medical Examiner’s office determined the boy’s cause of death was likely from asphyxiation, the arrest report said.

“Cole willfully assisted Dearman and intentionally placed the child victim’s feet between her back and the couch, while Dearman used his body weight to restrict the child victim’s breathing,” the report noted. Cole, the report noted, refused to help the child when he “yelled he could not breathe.”

Cole was booked into the Sarasota County Jail Monday night.

Dearman was booked into the Sarasota County Jail Dec. 28. He faces aggravated manslaughter of a child charges. His bond was set at $1 million, according to jail records. He also had an outstanding warrant from McIntosh County, Georgia, jail records indicate.

Booking photos courtesy of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office