Couple charged in fatal beating of 12-year-old boy in Northwest Side apartment, police say

A San Antonio couple beat a 12-year-old boy and made him do push-ups and hold 50-pound boxes for hours before he lost consciousness and died at a hospital, according to police.

Derrick Coles, 32, and Kapri Cheatom, 27, were arrested overnight and each charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony, jail records show. Charges may be upgraded upon further investigation.

Police said they responded to the couple’s apartment in the 7000 block of Wurzbach Road just after 7:30 p.m. on Sunday for a report of an injured child.

Officers found Coles’ son, identified as Danilo Coles, unresponsive, an arrest warrant affidavit states. The couple alleged that the boy fell in the shower.

The boy was taken to University Hospital where staff found “several suspicious injuries on the victim,” the affidavit states. He had no brain activity and was pronounced dead that night.

The couple was taken in for questioning, and Derrick Coles said the boy recently moved in with them. The boy was previously staying with his mother in Chicago, where he was allegedly abused in the past, the affidavit states.

Derrick Coles said the boy was “disrespectful” upon moving in so he made him do push-ups and hold boxes that weighed about 50 pounds as a discipline.

On Sunday, Derrick Coles said he “busted” the boy’s lip and made the boy do push-ups and hold boxes for three to four hours, the affidavit states.

He said he made his son take a shower, where the boy fell and cut his eye, according to investigators. The man said he then made his son write three pages worth of lines of “I will obey all people that live in the household.”

When Derrick Coles made the boy do more push-ups, the boy said he was unable to.

Derrick Coles and Cheatom then hit the boy with a belt, spanking him so hard that he had severe injuries to his buttocks, the affidavit states.

Investigators said the boy had several whipping marks and internal stomach bleeding.

Jail records show they were arrested around 1 a.m. Monday. Their bonds are set at $150,000 each.