Latricia Crawley and Benjamin Lockett (Broward County Sheriff’s Office)
A 46-year-old woman and her 43-year-old boyfriend in Florida were arrested this week for allegedly torturing and abusing a 15-year-old girl in their care for nearly a decade, leaving the child with scars from head to toe. Latricia Elizabeth Crawley and Benjamin Deztuan Lockett were taken into custody on Wednesday and each charged with one count of aggravated child abuse and one count of child neglect with great bodily harm, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, officers with the Margate Police Department on Wednesday responded to the couple’s residence located in the 20 block of NW 79th Terrace after the victim wrote a message to her online instructor saying that “she needed help” and “asked to have the police sent to her home.”
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they found the victim with a laceration on the side of her head that was swollen and bleeding. Officers learned that Lockett had punched the victim in the face with a closed fist, “causing her head to slam into the corner of a desk,” the affidavit states. The child was transported to Broward Health Coral Springs for treatment.
“While the victim was receiving treatment, your affiant was notified that Margate Police Officers observed evidence of significant long-term trauma on the victim’s body during examination,” police wrote. “The trauma witnessed was scars consistent with ligature marks, bruising, scar tissue, bite marks from insects, and general signs and symptoms of malnutrition.”
The victim told a detective that Crawley and Lockett had been her legal guardians since 2014, since which time they had “willfully and maliciously tortured the victim, unlawfully caged the victim in two different closets, and have willfully abused the victim in manners that have caused permanent disfigurement.” the affidavit states.
Inside the home, police said they found two closets with locking mechanisms on the outside, one of which had blood spatter on the inside.
“The victim explained throughout her time at this residence, approximately 10 years, [Crawley and Lockett] would lock her in one of these closets, at times bound by zip ties, where she would sleep and was provided a bucket for her to urinate and/or defecate in,” the affidavit states. “The defendant would often pour cold water on the victim while she slept, just to see her wake up.”
Investigators also said the child exhibited the “signs and symptoms” of being starved, as “the outline of her bones were visible, especially around the spine.” Police said her appearance was consistent with claims that the victim “was starved as a form of punishment” by Crawley and Lockett.
The victim provided investigators with the following approximate incidents of particularly extreme abuse, including the approximate dates and injuries suffered:
- In 2019, the victim was 11 years old when Lockett allegedly kicked her in her chin, resulting in a noticeable permanent scar, which was observed by the detective.
- In 2021, the victim was 13 when Crawley allegedly oiled her knees and forced her to kneel on uncooked rice “for several hours at a time, for several days in a row, resulting in permanent disfigurement to her knees in the form of scar tissue, which was observed by the detective.
- Also in 2021 when she was 13, Crawley allegedly “tied the victim to a fixed object and struck her toes with a hammer” which resulted in “severe pain and bleeding.”
- In 2022, the victim was 14 when Crawley and Lockett allegedly both “tied and bound” her to different objects on multiple occasions with a nylon rope, causing “permanent disfigurement to the victim’s skin on her shoulder’s, wrists, and areas of her stomach in the form of scarring and hyperpigmentation.”
- That same year, Crawley allegedly threw a pot of boiling water at the victim, causing permanent scarring to the victim’s stomach.
The victim also said Crawley and Lockett would regularly punish her by taping her eyes shut and dunking her head in water. Police said the child became so upset while explaining the abuse that she began to cry uncontrollably and the interview had to be put on hold to give her time to recover.
While they were in custody, police noted that neither defendant made any attempt to locate or ask about the wellbeing of the victim, who had been taken into custody by Child Protective Services.
Crawley and Lockett both appear to have been released from detention, as neither of their names appear on the Broward County Sheriff’s roster of current inmates.
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