Rhode Island Crime and Police

PROVIDENCE — Akeem King was found guilty yesterday of second-degree murder in the killing last year of 2-year-old Marquel Davis, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said.

The jury deliberated for 20 minutes before returning the guilty verdict before Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause after a four-day trial. Assistant Attorney General Scott Erickson prosecuted the case.

King, 21, of 9 Erastus St., Providence, was accused of killing Davis while the child was in his care on July 31 and Aug. 1, 2005.

Lynch said in statement that according to trial testimony, Marquel’s 19-year-old mother, Michelle Thurmon, worked as a prostitute for Troy Figgs, King’s roommate.

She left the child with King and Figgs in their third-floor apartment on Erastus Street on the afternoon of Sunday, July 31, while she went to Boston to work, and said her son was healthy when she left.

When the boy’s mother returned at about 11 that night, she gave Figgs money she had made in Boston and was sent back to work in Providence. She said she saw her son lying face-down on King’s bed and thought he was asleep.

When she returned to the apartment at 3 a.m., she was locked out and went to her sister’s house for the night.

At 7 a.m. Monday, Aug. 1, a tenant living in the building was awakened by King, who said Marquel was choking. The woman found the child dead, his body cold.

An autopsy showed that the child died of acute subdural hemorrhage — a bleeding under a membrane that covers the brain — and brain injury caused by blunt force trauma. He also suffered contusions to his scalp, face and body.

Lynch called the case a “senseless and brutal murder,” and said he looked forward to prosecuting Figgs, also a defendant.

King is seeking a new trial, with a hearing to be held on Oct. 17. He is being held without bail awaiting sentencing, Lynch said.