COILA — Thursday would have been Sawyer Jerrell Holston’s first Thanksgiving.
If he had been like other 9-month-olds, Sawyer would have spent the holiday being passed around from relative to relative, from mother to grandmother, grandfather to uncle, as a family came together in one home to watch football, eat turkey, share recent experiences and be grateful for what the year had brought.
If he had been like other 9-month-olds, Sawyer would be starting to crawl, starting to associate names — such as “Mama” — with faces, and beginning to pay attention to what children around him — a sister, a cousin — were doing and saying.
Instead, Sawyer will be laid to rest the day before Thanksgiving in New Homes Cemetery next to Payne Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Quito.
A hearse from Byas Mortuary in Greenwood picked up Sawyer’s body Monday from the Mississippi Medical Examiner’s Office in Jackson after an autopsy determined he had died from blunt force trauma to the head, the result of being beaten to death with a hard object.
Tervonte Devon Alexander, 18, is in the Carroll County Jail, charged with murder and held without bond. The Carroll County Sheriff’s Department says it was Alexander who beat Sawyer to death when he was left alone with the baby.
Alexander had been living in the house at 2824 County Road 149 in Coila with Sawyer and his mother, Lashaundra Holston, who also goes by Saniya Jaxelle, authorities said. The house is back up in the woods, off a gravel road south of U.S. 82 and a few miles west of Mississippi 17 in a collection of dwellings — some of them abandoned.
Last Wednesday, someone called 911 from the home, saying the baby was unresponsive. Alexander was in the house, a Carroll County official said, but told the sheriff’s deputies who responded that he had put Sawyer down in his crib with a bottle, and when he went back to check on him found him unresponsive.
The deputies took turns doing CPR on the infant until a MedStat ambulance arrived. MedStat staff continued CPR as the ambulance rushed Sawyer to Greenwood Leflore Hospital. Despite the best efforts of health-care providers at the hospital, Sawyer never responded and was pronounced dead at 5:18 p.m.
Carroll County Coroner Mark Stiles drove Sawyer’s body last Thursday to the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Jackson. Stiles contacted the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department when an autopsy performed Friday determined the cause of death as homicide. Rather than dying on his own, left in a crib with a bottle, the autopsy found Sawyer had been struck in the head with enough force to kill him.
Carroll County sheriff’s deputies and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrested Alexander later that day.
During an initial hearing Sunday, Justice Court Judge Jimmy Avant ordered Alexander to be jailed without bond.
The MBI continues to investigate.
Visitation for Sawyer will be today starting at 1 p.m. at Byas Mortuary, 306 McLemore St. Funeral services will begin at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Payne Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, south of Itta Bena.
Several fundraising efforts are under way to share the cost of the funeral. Many of them are posted on the Facebook page of Sawyer’s mother, under Saniya Jaxelle.
•Contact Gavin Maliska at 581-7235 or gmaliska@gwcommonwealth.com.
