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Woman Who Killed 4-Year-Old Myls Dobson Pleads Guilty to Murder

By Janon Fisher | September 29, 2016 5:34pm
 Kryzie King was charged with assault and reckless endangerment in the death of 4-year-old Myls Dobson.
Kryzie King was charged with assault and reckless endangerment in the death of 4-year-old Myls Dobson.
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MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — The woman accused of torturing, starving and fatally beating 4-year-old Myls Dobson — in a criminal case that sparked promises of child welfare reform and new state child protection law — pleaded guilty Thursday in exchange for 22 years to life in prison.

Kryzie King, 29, agreed to the deal after two years of wrangling with prosecutors over admissibility of a videotaped confession and other issues.

King, wearing tan prison scrubs with her hair done up, was barely audible as she pleaded guilty to nine counts, including murder and assault, during her appearance.

Ashlee Dobson, the boy's mother, sobbed uncontrollably in the audience and had to be removed from the courtroom by officers.

Myls's great uncle Will Brown, who was there representing the father's side of the family, said that he was glad King took the plea.

"I"m just relieved that this part is over," he said. "While this part is over, the pain and suffering is not. That will go on for sometime."

Brown's family suffered another loss recently when his niece, 22-year-old accounting student Tiarah Poyau, was gunned down at the J'Ouvert celebration in Crown Heights on Labor Day weekend.

"With all this going on, it's hard to stay in a positive frame of mind," he said.

King has no relation to Myls, but was still left to take care of the boy in the winter of 2014 after his father, Okee Wade, was arrested on an outstanding warrant in New Jersey.

Caring for the child turned out to be too much for the hairdresser who claimed the boy was ill behaved, disrespectful and vandalized her property, according to her police confession.

After starving Myls for about two weeks, burning him with a hot oven rack and beating him with a belt and power cords, the child became non-responsive after hitting his head in the bathtub of King's Manhattan high-rise apartment, King told police.

"She duct-taped his mouth during the beating so the neighbors would not hear his screams," Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said during the plea hearing.

At one point, King put the 4-year-old out on the balcony of her apartment in only a T-shirt during the Polar Vortex in subzero temperatures, the ADA said.

On Jan. 8, 2014, King called 911 to report that the child was injured, but the medical examiner's report shows the boy was dead at least 24 hours prior, according to Blumberg.

Weeks after Dobson's death Mayor Bill de Blasio released a report that found that the Administration for Children's Services had not done enough to protect the child.

ACS had been monitoring the child's well-being after years of documented abuse from his mother, Ashlee Marie Dobson. The agency recommended the boy be put in the care of Wade, despite the father's history of criminal activity, including rape, robbery and assault.

The father left Myls in the care of King on Dec. 18, when he found out that New Jersey authorities were looking for him after he skipped a court date related to a bank fraud charge.

The mayor pumped millions of dollars into the agency for more personnel and offered several reforms.

Public Advocate Letitia James called for the closing of a loophole that allowed Myls to be left in King's care without notifying his mother or other relatives.

Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal and state Sen. Jose Serrano introduced two bills over successive years that would require authorities to find out when a person is arrested if they are leaving a child unprotected. The bills have since gone nowhere.

Similar policy has been indorsed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and implemented by the San Francisco police department.

On Wednesday, a mother and her boyfriend were arrested in Harlem and charged with the death of her son 6-year-old Zymere Perkins, who authorities believe was beaten to death.