A mother and her boyfriend were found guilty of torturing and murdering a 7-year-old girl in Hawthorne.
Ida Helen Brockman, 34, and Malachi Xavier Whalen, 33, were convicted of the death of A’Miya Dawson, Brockman’s daughter, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
On Sept. 9, 2021, the couple brought the girl, who was unresponsive, to Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Willowbrook.
She was found with multiple severe injuries. Suspecting child abuse, hospital staff called Hawthorne Police. Officers spoke with the couple and determined the girl’s injuries were not consistent with their statements.
Homicide investigators with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department examined an apartment in the 3000 block of El Segundo Boulevard, where the couple and child lived together and discovered a crime scene. Brockman and Whalen were taken into custody.
During questioning, authorities said the couple attempted to frame the girl’s biological father for the murder. However, Brockman eventually admitted to the lies, prosecutors said.
According to the L.A. County Medical Examiner, the young girl endured physical torture and sustained over 58 individual injuries, including severe burns, blunt force trauma, multiple fractured ribs, a collapsed lung, and other significant internal injuries.
On July 2, 2025, following a 10-week trial, jurors found Brockman and Whalen both guilty of one count of murder and one count of torture with the special circumstance of intentional torture-murder.
Additionally, Brockman was found guilty of child abuse causing death, and Whalen was found guilty of one count of assault on a child causing death.
“I want to acknowledge the hard and tireless work of Deputy District Attorneys David Zygielbaum and Kelly Kraetsch, LASD Homicide Detectives Matthew Landreth and Frank Heredia, and the rest of the Family Violence Division’s prosecutorial team, as they sought justice for A’Miya,” said L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. “Our office will continue to fight for the most vulnerable among us and do everything within our power to prevent such senseless acts of violence.”
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 12 at the Airport Courthouse in L.A.
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