Boyfriend Killed Woman's Foster Child In Eagan: Police

EAGAN, MN — A 28-year-old man is accused of fatally beating his girlfriend's foster child. Charles Wayne Homich was indicted by a grand jury last month with murder in connection with the death of 3-year-old Zayden Lawson, a foster child in the care of Homich’s girlfriend, Zeporia Fortenberry.

Fortenberry, 31, of Eagan was charged back in April with manslaughter. The case against her is ongoing.

On June 7, 2017 around 3 p.m., Eagan police officers and paramedics were dispatched to a townhome on a report that a boy was not breathing. The child, later identified as Lawson, was found to be cold to the touch and without a pulse. He was transported to Children’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

According to investigators, on June 6 Fortenberry was working the night shift and had left her two children in the care of Homich (her live-in boyfriend).

The next day, Lawson told Fortenberry that his stomach hurt. He vomited a couple of times and Fortenberry said he was acting lazy, the criminal complaint states. She eventually put him in his pajamas and laid him on a mattress next to her bed.

While on the phone with Homich, she noticed the boy wasn’t conscious or breathing and called 911. An autopsy revealed his death was due to multiple blunt force injuries.

In a statement, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said that "this little boy sustained horrific injuries allegedly at the hands of Charles Homich – injuries he may have survived had the adults in his life sought the necessary medical care he so desperately needed."

Image via Dakota County Sheriff's Office