MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Whitehaven man already sentenced to life in the beating death of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son has been sentenced to 80 more years.
The Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office said 29-year-old Marterrius Hite was previously sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder in the death of 2-year-old Deandre Davis. Friday, the judge added 40-year sentences each for two additional convictions of abuse and neglect. The judge ordered the sentences to run concurrently, citing Hite’s criminal record and the “excessive cruelty” in the boy’s death.
According to investigators, Hite called first responders on July 13, 2015, when he found Davis floating in a bathtub at a Whitehaven apartment and not breathing. The boy was taken to Le Bonheur where he died.
Police and medical personnel testified to finding cuts and bruises on the boy’s body, and the DA said Hite admitted to grabbing Davis by the neck and “popped him several times with a belt on his stomach and legs.” The Da said a belt the defendant had matched the pattern of injuries on the boy’s back and legs.
The medical examiner said the boy had “head trauma, brain hemorrhaging, numerous internal injuries in the abdomen, and scars and wounds in various stages of healing on the boy’s torso, legs and right arm.”
The DA said a doctor for the defense told the jury the boy died from cancer.
