SEATTLE — Newly released court documents detail the horrific beating of a 14-year-old boy at the hands of his mother that led to the teen’s death at the end of January.
On Jan. 30, Seattle Police responded to a call for an unresponsive boy in a south Seattle apartment. Denaya Young, the boy’s mother, called 911. When officers responded, she told them that she “went too far” during an hour-long beating of the teen for not doing his chores, according to court documents.
The teen was temporarily resuscitated by first responders but died shortly after arriving at Harborview Medical Center.
According to court documents, Young, 29, beat the teen with an extension cord until his heart gave out. The medical examiner said the boy had 1,172 fresh injuries from the beating, and likely died from Sudden Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) or Distributive Shock. Court documents define SIRS as “when the body sends blood and blood serum to so many different injuries around the body, attempting to heal them, that it draws enough blood out of the muscles and other vital areas that there is not enough to sustain the heart.”
Young said she lost count of how many times she hit her child. He told her that he was dizzy and kept falling down, but she told officers that she thought he was pretending to get out of cleaning the mess he made, according to court documents.
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She also admitted to hitting the teen in the past with a closed fist and “probably” put her hands around his neck during a previous beating, court documents detail.
“I cut his a** a little too hard. He was supposed to be doing chores, he didn’t,” she told responding officers. “He was supposed to do them last night. It’s a recurring thing, and then I let my anger get the best of me with the extension cord.”
While the 14-year-old enduring the beating, his three siblings, a 5-month old, and a 4- and 6-year-old, were present. The teen’s stepfather was also present during the beating, but did nothing to stop it, according to court documents.
The stepfather told officers that he didn’t intervene with the teen’s previous beatings because the child is not his and he felt it wasn’t his place, saying it was best to mind his own business in “these situations,” court documents say.
The 14-year-old boy came to his mother’s home in August of 2024 for a visit, but she did not return him to his aunt, who is his legal guardian.
Young has been charged with second-degree murder. Prosecutors are asking that she be held on $3 million bail.
It’s unclear if the stepfather will face charges in connection to this incident.
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