A San Antonio woman was sentenced to prison for the death of her 12-year-old stepson.
Kapri Cheatom, 31, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for injury to a child causing serious bodily injury during a plea hearing on Monday.
Cheatom’s stepson, Danilo, was pronounced dead at the hospital on Feb. 6, 2022. When officers arrived at her Northwest Side home that day, they found the boy on the floor in cardiac arrest.
Hospital staff found several injuries on Danilo — including bruises, burns and cuts.
The doctor at the hospital told police that Coles told him that he made Danilo do five hours of “military-style” push-ups right before he collapsed, according to an arrest affdavit.
Coles and Cheatom told police that they had “disciplined” Danilo for about four hours that day before they told him to take a shower. They said they allowed Danilo to eat before resuming their discipline, making him do push-ups until he physically couldn’t and hitting him multiple times with a belt, the arrest affidavit stated.
The Bexar County medical examiner determined that Danilo’s cause of death was rhabdomyolysis — a condition in which the muscle tissues break down and release harmful substances into the bloodstream, causing the organs to shut down.
The condition is rarely fatal, only under extreme conditions, according to an emergency doctor who testified during Coles’ trial.
In the affidavit, police said Danilo had moved to San Antonio from Chicago to live with Coles and Cheatom after Child Protective Services took him from his mother.