My Son's Life Was Cut Short By His Own Father!

Unfiltered Stories

Toni Hill shares the heartbreaking story of losing her son Mikkah, who was tragically murdered by his biological father at just 13 months old. Through her grief, Toni speaks about the immense pain of this loss and the journey of trying to heal from an unimaginable tragedy.   #healingjourney #truecrime #trauma   Follow Toni here:  https://www.facebook.com/toni.brown.35  https://www.katesclub.org/  https://www.instagram.com/tonib4444  https://www.tiktok.com/@maddame44   Thank you for watching Unfiltered Stories! We offer a platform for our guests to speak openly about their life stories and journeys, shedding light on the challenges they faced and the resilience they've shown.  Our mission is to raise awareness about survivors by delving into their stories, exploring the impact of their experiences, and how they've managed to heal and rebuild their lives.  By sharing these stories, we aim to break the silence surrounding those challenging memories and create a compassionate environment.    🌅 FOLLOW US 🌅  Facebook ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredFB  Tiktok ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredTT  Snapchat ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredSN

Transcript

00:00My name is Toni Brown, and my story today is in regards to losing my son, Micah Aramis Theodore

00:06Brown, at 13 months. I met Micah's father online at the time, and it wasn't long that we began

00:12dating before I became pregnant. I think we were dating about three months before I got pregnant

00:16with my son. Even though we were not together, which I decided, like, I did not want to be with

00:21this person, I still wanted him to have a relationship with his son and have access to

00:26his son and be part of his son's life. And unfortunately, my decision turned out to be

00:32a terrible one. As a result of me just trying to allow them to have that relationship, he was

00:37responsible for his murder. He was never violent. He was never physical towards me or my other

00:42children. He had other children. He had five other children. So I never would have anticipated that he

00:48was capable of anything of what he had done that day. I actually found out in the course of me

00:54being

00:54pregnant that he was back online trying to meet other women in my area. So that was why I was

01:00like, okay, I don't want a relationship with you. We're done. But you still can be a part of Micah's

01:06life. Just seeing him with his little sister, because at the time she was two, when he was born,

01:11she was such a wonderful big sister. She helped me around the house. She loved on him. And my oldest

01:18at

01:18the time was around 11. He was still living in California. But when he moved back home,

01:23he finally had the little brother he had always wanted. And we just combined as a family, just

01:29Malachi, which is my oldest, Brioni, which is my middle, and Micah. And we just did everything

01:34together. We laughed, we sang, we danced around the house. They were just such great siblings. And he just

01:41was the sweetest, kindest, most loving baby you had ever met. Everybody just loved him. He was

01:47nothing but light. And he brought so much joy that I didn't even know I needed or wanted. And he

01:54was so pivotal and changed my life. At the time when I asked Micah's father to come to the house

02:01was

02:02when my babysitter had fallen through. And at that time, my son was 12. My daughter was three. And there

02:08was no way I was going to allow a 12-year-old to watch his three-year-old sister and

02:13one-year-old

02:13brother. So he was, at that time, my only option for help to be there for Micah because he was

02:18so

02:18young. And I asked him to come over and to babysit for me, which he said he had no problem

02:25doing. And

02:25at that time, even though we weren't together, we weren't arguing, we weren't fighting. And so he came

02:30over. For the first couple of days, everything was good in my eyes until that Friday morning when I

02:37got home from work. And I remember I was able to pay my rent this month. So it was late

02:42the last

02:42couple of months. I finally was on time for my rent. Went to the grocery store, got food, got diapers,

02:48was going to drop his dad off and just have the rest of the weekend to just spend time with

02:53the kids

02:54and catch up on sleep. When I got home that morning, my oldest son, Malachi, came to me and

03:00he told me what he had seen. And he had seen Micah's dad swinging Micah by his neck. He had

03:06something around his neck and he was swinging him around his neck. And he said he swung him so high

03:11that his feet hit the ceiling. And he had taken the phone so it wasn't like my son could call

03:16me or

03:16reach out to me that morning when he saw what he saw. So he waited till I got home. And

03:22I remember

03:23going upstairs and he wasn't trying to allow me to hold on to Micah or to really get to Micah

03:30at that time. And at some point he went downstairs. And that's when I grabbed Micah and I had put

03:37him

03:37in his car seat. And I remember snapping my fingers in front of his eyes and he didn't blink. And

03:42I

03:42remember yelling to the kids, get dressed, we got to go to the hospital. And at that time, you know,

03:48knowing that I knew that he had harmed him, I went to speak and say, Hey, he saw you do

03:54this.

03:54The voice in my head. And I just have to think of this as being divine intervention. It's like,

04:00no, don't say anything. Get to the hospital. And you would think like most people would think 9-1-1

04:06would have been like your immediate response, but it wasn't for me. It was just because I was a mom

04:10and I've always done everything on my own. It was just, I have to get him to the hospital. And

04:15so I

04:15remember grabbing the kids, convincing him to go with us to the hospital and having to drive with

04:20him next to me, wanting to just scream out, I know what you did, but still maintaining that.

04:26I don't know what happened. Can you just take me through the story of what happened to him?

04:31Just trying to get some answers. And we pull up to urgent care. And I remember getting out of the

04:37car

04:37and asking him to take Micah into the facility. And he was just moving too slow for me. So you

04:43see

04:43this later on the camera, which I didn't know that they had recordings of us when we get into the

04:47parking lot. But you see me grab Micah and rush me and the kids into the urgent care. And I

04:52go up

04:52to the nurse and I tell her, Hey, my son is not responsive. They immediately take him to the back

04:57and I'm watching them cut his clothes off. I'm watching them trying to just get him stabilized.

05:04And I'm just crying. And at this time, his dad is just trying to console me. And I just wanted

05:09him

05:10to just get off me. And then when I turn and I look and I see them doing CPR, I

05:15lose it, just hit

05:16the floor. And I'm crying and I'm screaming and he's picking me up and he's telling me, calm down.

05:22And I was so, so angry at that moment because I knew he was responsible. And I'm screaming,

05:28just get off me, get off me. And the nurses, they grab me and they grab my children. They take

05:33us to

05:33another room. And at that time, I, I turned to my son and I asked him, are you sure you

05:38saw what you saw?

05:39Because I'm going to let these nurses know that this is what happened to him. It's going to be

05:43major. He was like, yes, mom, I'm sure. So I remember at one point he tries to come in to

05:49the

05:49room and thankfully the nurses stopped him. And that same nurse, she comes back in and I let her know

05:54what my son had seen. And they immediately called the police and at some point come back to me and

06:00they say he went from respiratory distress to respiratory arrest. And we have to fly him to

06:07children's hospital because he's not breathing. And I call my family and I let them know what's

06:13going on. My mom gets to the hospital and she screams at him. What did you do? What did you

06:18do?

06:19And she takes my son and my daughter to the police station where they questioned my son. They take

06:24his dad to the police station. And I have to drive myself to Choa children's hospital Atlanta by myself.

06:32I'm getting lost along the way because I'm hysterical. I'm crying. I'm trying to call my

06:37friends and family. I finally get to the hospital and I remember talking to the doctor. Hey, before I

06:42studied, you know, it was in the legal field. I wanted to be a doctor. So I believe in science.

06:48I need you to tell me the truth. How bad is he? And she just shook her head. And she

06:53was like,

06:54we can't differentiate between the gray matter and the white matter in his brain. He is on a breathing

06:59machine. He's going to need a feeding tube. He will be a vegetable for the rest of his

07:04life. He will never walk again. He will never talk again. He's going to remain in this vegetative

07:09state. And I remember wanting to take him off life support right then. But faith, hope led

07:15me to just try to hold on to him. And for three days, I would see him do involuntary movements

07:22and think, hey, look, he's coming out. He's going to be okay. And they would tell me, no,

07:27that's just a result of his injuries. He was never going to be okay. I had to be told to

07:32eat.

07:33I didn't sleep. I remember they made me go home and take a shower and I immediately just changed

07:39clothes and came right back. And on the third day, I was like, I can't do this. I can't do

07:45this

07:46anymore. I can't do this to him. I can't do this to my children. And I had to decide to

07:52take him off

07:52life support. And with my family and friends around me, they placed him in my arms and they

07:58took him off all the machines. And he fought for 45 minutes. And his brother, remember he was 12,

08:06whispering in his ear, it's okay. You can go. We'll be okay. Go ahead and rest. And I remember

08:14him taking his last breath. And I remember the doctor looking at me and telling me he was gone.

08:19And I screamed so loud that they heard me in the waiting room. And I just held him. And I

08:27just cried.

08:28We all were just broken. And at the time, my friends, I got together to share my story and get

08:34it out of

08:35time. And I ended up doing a news interview, like an hour after me taking him off life support,

08:41just trying to share my story and what had happened to me and getting the phone call that it was

08:47time

08:47to take him to the morgue. So I go back, we get a mold of his handprint. They give me

08:53a lock of his

08:54hair and they tell me it's time. And they were like, we can take him. And I was like, no,

08:58if this is the

09:00last time that I get to hold him, I'm going to take him myself. And I carried him to the

09:04morgue. And I

09:05remember him being cold. I remember him just for the first time in my life, seeing what death meant.

09:11And I took him from me to the morgue and had to go back upstairs and collect my things and

09:17my two

09:17kids and go to the car and losing it when I got to the car seat, his car seat in

09:22the back, knowing

09:23that he was never going home with us again. And going home was the worst because his crib was in

09:29his

09:29brother's room because they shared a room and seeing my son lose it, throw stuff around the room

09:35screaming. This bastard took my brother. How am I going to console these two children when my whole

09:42world was shattered? And just trying to survive those days afterward. And I don't know this was

09:48possible that you could cry for two weeks straight, but I literally cried every day for two weeks.

09:55Um, and then his funeral was four days later. At that time, I just, I just remember signing things

10:01and going to get his suit that he was going to be buried in. I don't remember planning anything.

10:06I don't remember details. I just remember just getting his suit and having to buy a hat because

10:13his injuries were so severe that I had to buy a hat to cover his head because of all the

10:18trauma he

10:18faced. And, uh, I remember the wake and I couldn't touch him. I couldn't get close to him because

10:24it was so surreal that he was laying in this casket. And, uh, the day of his funeral was so

10:30hard.

10:31And I remember when they were like, it was the end. I leaned over in the casket. Mind you, I

10:36couldn't

10:36touch him days before, but I kneeled and I kissed him goodbye. I kissed him on his lips and I

10:42told him we

10:42were going to be okay. And going to the cemetery and having the ceremony and them telling me,

10:48Tony, you can't stay. We're going to lower him now. We need you to go. And so we left. And

10:53for 10

10:54years, I didn't even have a tombstone for him. So when I would go visit him, it was nothing but

11:00grass.

11:01And finally, a few years after going to see him, I couldn't find him. And so I knew I needed

11:07a marker

11:07for him. I needed the world to know that he existed and that he was here and that he was

11:12an angel.

11:13And so, um, a couple of years ago, I finally was able to have the resources to lay him to

11:19rest.

11:19And, uh, it's hard now to see him. It's hard to visit him because I just, it's been 12 years

11:26and it

11:27feels like it was yesterday. All of the memories, all of the trauma. So a year later, I get the

11:33phone

11:33call that we're going to trial. And as a result of me doing that news story, the DA at the

11:39time of

11:40our County, the actual DA herself said, I'm going to try your case. I saw your news story and I

11:46saw

11:46your son Malachi and I'm, I'm going to take this case on. And so prior to, um, us going to

11:54court, of

11:54course, the police call me in to get my side of the story. And it was very scary. It was

12:00very traumatic.

12:01And just telling the police officer my story and him doing the math. And he's the only reason why

12:06I knew I was only getting four hours of sleep a day. And I remember him telling me, I was

12:10ready

12:10to arrest you for neglect. But after I heard your story, I knew that you were telling the truth

12:15about what happened. And I'm going to make sure that he does the time for the crime that he committed.

12:21They have me come in and they're just gathering the story and they tell me, we're going to offer

12:26him a pleaded to which I was like, oh, okay, that's, that's fine. We're going to offer him 30

12:31years with the possibility of parole to which I agreed upon because they can't give him this plea

12:37unless you as the victim might agree to that, to which I did because I just wanted him to admit

12:42guilt. And so they offered to it to him, um, once, which he rejected the day of the trial.

12:48They say again, Hey, we're going to offer you this plea right now. You can plead right now and prevent

12:54myself, my son, everybody involved from having to take the stand. You can, you can end this.

12:59And he rejected it. So she turns to him and says, I'm going to go for the maximum sentence I

13:04can

13:05on every single count because you rejected this plea. And that's exactly what she did.

13:10He's making all kinds of faces. He's just reacting very blasé about me retelling the story. So that

13:17was very difficult watching him react in the manner that he was reacting in. And then my son had to

13:23take the stand and you're asking a 13 year old boy to relive seeing his brother getting murdered to

13:30which he does. And so they, uh, play the tape of a year before of him telling that same story.

13:37They play it in court. And my son is telling the same story that day that he's telling on the

13:42stand.

13:43So that was hard to watch. They play recordings from the hospital. And at that time I had no idea

13:49that he went to the exit door. His father went to the exit door at the hospital. And that at

13:54some

13:54point in time he was trying to leave. But at that moment that he was trying to walk through the

14:00door,

14:01a police officer was walking in that same door and he turned around and he walked away,

14:06remaining in the hospital. So I know that it was nothing but divine intervention that day

14:11to make sure that he was held accountable for what he had done. They tell me what was found in

14:18the

14:18autopsy and they showed the pictures. And at the time my victim advocates from the court told me,

14:24Tony, we're not going to let you see these pictures. And they instructed my family to cover me. So the

14:30victim advocates and my family were both literally covering me and preventing me from physically looking

14:35at the pictures. And then I hear the extent of his trauma. I heard that he had three skull fractures.

14:41He had a severed lip. So this top part of his lip was severed. He had blood spatter on his

14:46ribs.

14:47He had bruising all over his body and he had a bruised testicle. To this day, I still don't know

14:52how you even managed to do something like that to a 13 month old baby. And I find out that

14:59they took

15:00his eyes because there was so much bleeding to his eyes that they had to take them during the autopsy.

15:06And we get through the whole trial. And the only time that I wasn't present was when the defense

15:12was given their defense because there was nothing that you could say to me to justify what he had

15:18done. I remember going back in after defense made their case, which was very brief. And the jury

15:24goes to deliberate and it took them four hours. And we come back into the room and he had 14

15:30counts,

15:31to which 13 he was convicted of. And the biggest sentence was his life without the possibility of

15:38parole. He was given that charge as well as numerous convictions of child cruelty, battery,

15:45assault, even cruelty to animals. Because I had a dog at the time and the dog was in the house

15:50at the time of Micah's murder. So they even charged him with cruelty to animals. And I just remember

15:56hearing each of the counts being read and just not being able to shout in the courtroom because of

16:02course they let you know that if you make any noise or if you do anything, they can report a

16:07mistrial. At the time when they were reading the verdict and I looked behind me, the entire courtroom

16:12was filled with people, with the jurors, with police, with just everybody wanting to just make sure

16:19that he was put away for the rest of his life. And he was. And I have a big photo

16:25that they used

16:26during the trial that I was able to have each of the jurors sign on the back. And I have

16:32with me to

16:32this very day, just their words of encouragement, their support, their strength. I'm so grateful to

16:38those 12 people because they held him accountable. And they tried to give me some sense of just

16:43normalcy after that, because how do you pick up your pieces, the pieces of your life after that? But

16:49they gave me hope that I could at least move forward knowing that he was going to be away

16:54for the rest of his life. You know, sometimes you can't handle certain things on your own and you

16:59have to not be afraid to say, you know what? I can't handle this. Four years after everything

17:04happened, I snapped. I did. I finally, that moment finally came where it was like, okay, I'm losing it.

17:11Mentally, emotionally, I was like, okay, I can't deal with just life. And my cousin at the time,

17:17he came and he talked with me, he hugged me and he kind of helped ground me. So having people

17:22that

17:23are there for you, your family members that are truly there for you, having them to talk to, having

17:27them to tell you it's okay to not be okay was really instrumental. You know, that kind of helped me

17:32shift

17:33my perspective back to, okay, Tony, you've been doing it this long. You can get through this. And

17:38after that, I've just, I've been moving forward. So surround yourself with family and friends that love

17:43you that you can talk to. And if you can't talk to them, seek someone out. I know therapy, they

17:49have

17:49free access now to mental health. And so take advantage of having those resources to saying,

17:56Hey, I'm not okay. I need to speak to someone and help reshift that focus. And honestly, self-service

18:02doing something bigger than yourself really can help you get out of that funk. When you know that you're

18:07helping someone else who's been through the same trauma that you've been through, helping them seek a

18:12different path and helping them go through their trauma has worked wonders for me.

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