Infant Dies After Sustaining Beatings Starting at Ten Days Old | Crime Alert 10AM 10.08.25

A Houston father is charged with capital murder after his 2-month-old son died from what he claimed was allergies, but prosecutors say were repeated beatings, while the child’s mother faces a felony charge for failing to protect him. A Florida death row inmate known as the “Deacon of Death” is set to die by lethal injection in less than a week, nearly three decades after killing two women and leaving their bodies in a rural pond near Plant City. Drew Nelson reports.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alert hourly update, breaking crime news Now.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Drew Nelson.

Speaker 3 (00:04):
A Houston, Texas father is charged with capital murder after
his two month old son died from what he claimed
was allergies, but prosecutors say were repeated beatings, while the
mother faces a felony charge for failing to protect the boy.
Damari Aussain Alston, aged twenty seven, and his girlfriend, twenty
two year old Trinity Naomi Perez, were charged more than
a year after their son, Zane's death in September of

(00:26):
last year. Alston is being held on a two million
dollar bond and Perez's bond is set at a quarter
million dollars. Prosecutors said the baby suffered skull fractures, brain bleeding,
and multiple broken ribs. Court record show Zaine had been
injured as early as ten days old, prompting a CPS
investigation that required supervision by his maternal great grandmother. Assistant

(00:47):
District Attorney Tiffany Duprey spoke to our TV news partners
at Fox twenty six Houston.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
As a mother, we have a duty and an obligation
to protect our children, to seek adequate medical treatment for
them when they are injured, and so we believe she
did not uphold that duty.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Investigators said the parents were not following court ordered restrictions
on the night of September eighth, when Zane was found unresponsive.
Perez told police Alston had tripped while holding the baby
and claimed the injuries came from a fall. Alston later
blamed an allergic reaction for the swelling and fractures.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
According to court records, they.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Were having unsupervised contact with the baby and not following
the court conditions that had been in place previously, and
then ultimately the baby was taken to the hospital where
he was pronounced deceased.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Please say.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Alston's phone contained deleted Internet searches from that night such
as two month old baby hard to wake up? My
two month old son died? Is anyone getting charged? And
best Houston defense lawyers and child abuse cases. A day later,
while the infant was still in the hospital, he allegedly
searched how to pass a light detector test. Court documents

(01:56):
show the autopsy found evidence of at least four separate
blunt force trauma events. Zane's death was officially ruled homicide due.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
To the fact that they weren't following court conditions. That
were already in place, and his lack of ties to
the community, we felt that the bond needed to be high.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
If convicted, Alston could face life without parole or the
death penalty. Perez could serve up to ninety nine years.
More crime and.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Justice news after this.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
A Florida death row inmate, known as the Deacon of
Death is set to die by lethal injection in less
than a week, nearly three decades after killing two women
and leaving their bodies in a rural pond near Plant City.
Governor Ron Desanis signed the death warrant last month, marking
Florida's fourteenth execution this year, which is a record number
under any governor since the death penalty was reinstated in

(02:49):
nineteen seventy six. Said inmate. Seventy two year old Samuel
Lee Smithers was a former Baptist deacon convicted in nineteen
ninety nine of murdering thirty one year old Christy Cowen
and twenty four year old Denise Roach. Smithers met the
two women on separate nights in nineteen ninety six on
Nebraska Avenue in Tampa, an area known for prostitution. Court

(03:09):
records say he took them to a vacant property that
he maintained for a church friend, Marian Whitehurst.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
She later told deputies.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
She found Smithers cleaning an axe beside a pool of blood.
When questioned, he claimed someone had killed a small animal.
Deputies followed drag marks from the carport to a nearby pond,
where they found both women's bodies. Investigators said Cowan and
Roach were beaten, strangled, and left in the pond to die.
Smithers confessed soon after the arrest. He told detectives he

(03:36):
struck the women with an axe and a hoe during
arguments over money, then dumped their bodies in the water.
After his death, Senate Smithers changed his story, claiming a
mysterious man committed the killings and forced him to dispose
of the bodies. Courts rejected that, and his appeals were
denied over the next two decades. This year, his lawyers
argued that executing a seventy two year old man violates

(03:57):
constitutional bands on cruel and unusual punishment. A Hillsboro County
judge disagreed, ruling that quote the fact that mister Smithers
is of advanced age does not diminish the retributive value
of the death.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Penalty in this case.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
The sentence will be carried out Tuesday at the Florida
State Prison in Stark. Hider Mustafa Abu Chakra, forty, known
better as Harry, was last seen on the night of
December seventh of twenty eleven at the car dealership he
owned on Main Street in Manchester, Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
He called his wife at exactly.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Eight twenty four pm and said he had been at
a work meeting and would arrive home by nine to
take her to the movies, but he never made it home.
Police later found his Mercedes parked outside the dealership. That
same evening, Harry had met with a group of mechanics
who rented a garage from him. They were behind on
rent and he had arranged the meeting to discuss it.
Before calling his wife, Harry called his brother and said, quote,

(04:47):
they're scaring me. The mechanics denied any role in his disappearance,
but refused to take light detector tests. Investigators said it
was possible Harry fled the country to avoid prosecution. He
and his father both faced fraud sha arges at the time,
and his father had already escaped to Jordan. Harry left
behind six children, including one year old quadruplets. At the

(05:08):
time he vanished, he was wearing a gray suit, white
dress shirt, red tie, and black dress shoes. He also
wore a silver watch and had a dark brown wallet.
He was somewhere between five seven five nine, somewhere between
one hundred eighty to two hundred five pounds. He had
black hair and brown eyes. Manchester Police continue their search.
Contact them at eight six zero six four five fifty

(05:29):
five ten. For the latest crime and justice news, follow
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this crime Alert.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
I'm Drew Nelson.