Thomas James Desharnais and Stephanie Marie Davis (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office).
An attorney representing the family of a boy who was allegedly abused to death in Arizona by his grandparents said the state agency tasked with protecting him failed.
Chaksa Davis Smith, 11, died in 2022 after he was found unresponsive at an extended stay motel in Scottsdale. Following the boy’s death, authorities said he and his younger half-brother Liam showed signs of abuse, allegedly at the hands of their grandmother, 55-year-old Stephanie Davis, and her husband, 37-year-old Thomas Desharnais. In a lawsuit filed on behalf of Chaksa’s mother in Maricopa County on Feb. 4, attorney Matthew Boatman said both suspects were on the radar of the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS).
But despite seven calls being made to the agency, Chaksa and his brother suffered “horrific torture” for years, according to Boatman.
Boatman, an attorney at the firm Gallagher & Kennedy, spoke to several media outlets about the allegations in the lawsuit against the DCS, including local CBS affiliate KPHO. In his interview with KPHO, Boatman said seven calls were made by several parties who had seen signs of abuse on both Chaksa and Liam beginning in 2017. He told the station that staff at the boys’ school, at the hotel where they lived, and even police called DCS a total of seven times expressing their concerns.
While DCS conducted interviews with the boys, Davis, and Desharnais three times, Boatman said “[t]here were four more [calls] that they declined to follow up on or interview.”
When it came to the nature of the abuse, Boatman described it as “[s]ome of the most horrific torture that I’ve ever seen or heard of.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Chaksa was determined to have died of “significant injuries” that were sustained during the years leading up to his death on Jan. 30, 2022. According to a notice of claim filed before the lawsuit, Chaksa had “30 to 40 fresh contusions and lacerations.” Desharnais allegedly told police that he hit the boy in the head with a metal ratchet four or five times the day before he died. He told police that Davis would hit the boys with a broom handle and make them sleep in the bathtub so they would not get blood on the furniture.
Desharnais also described the alleged torture Davis would inflict on the boys using needle-nosed pliers, pinching their skin and bending their fingers. Police said a pair of pliers, a broom handle, and a wrench were all found in the motel room, all with blood on them.
Boatman told KPHO, “These boys were beaten with wrenches, knives, forced to live in bathtubs, they wore shock collars, they were starved, forced to panhandle, and robbed of an education.”
Every time DCS was contacted, Boatman said, the agency deemed the reports “unsubstantiated.”
In an interview with local radio station KTAR, Boatman said that there were “several opportunities to save these children.” He added, “I think there’s a problem with the call center. I think there’s a problem with transitioning files, and when there’s multiple reports about the same instance, it doesn’t seem like their people are connecting the dots, and too many signs and red flags are being missed, in my opinion.”
Arizona DCS is also under fire for its handling of three more cases of children who died after reports of abuse, including the case of 10-year-old Rebekah Baptiste. Boatman also represents the surviving members of her family.
Davis and Desharnais were charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, and tampering with evidence. They are scheduled to appear in court on March 20 before their trial on April 6. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this story.
