Sadness, Anger at Foster Child’s Funeral

Elijah Jamel Johnson was remembered Wednesday as a child who “loved to eat bread and butter, chocolate candy and drink soda pop.”

And also as an abused foster child who “always had marks and bruises all over his body that were unexplained.”

Elijah, 3, died May 10 from massive burns suffered two weeks earlier in a bathtub filled with scalding water in the foster home where he lived.

Elijah’s mother, Connie Lawrence, 24, said she had repeatedly complained to a social worker about conditions at the foster home. But her complaints were ignored, she said.

Leona Patrice Hightower, 23, has been charged with murder and assault on a child causing death. Both charges carry a maximum life sentence.

More than 100 mourners were at Elijah’s funeral Wednesday at the Angelus Funeral Home in the Crenshaw district, where sorrow and anger were present in equal measure.

“If this baby had not been taken from his mother, he would not be dead,” said Perry Crouch of FACES, an organization that mediates conflicts between street gangs. “Whose child will be next lying there?”

Crouch challenged African American men to “stand up and start being fathers to your kids.” That comment brought a ripple of applause from the mourners.

“This baby did not have a chance,” Crouch said.

Debra Reid, whose son, Jonathan, died in foster care two years ago, told the mourners that “the only times people listen are at ceremonies like this.”

Looking at Elijah’s mother, Reid said: “Connie, make a decision. Either you can go home and mourn or you can get out and fight.”

Reid said mothers of children who have been killed in foster care will march on the county Department of Children and Family Services headquarters June 9, carrying photos of their dead youngsters.

“We will walk with those babies’ faces,” she said. “We are going to put faces on those statistics.”

Forty-five children were killed by parents or others entrusted with their care in Los Angeles County in 1997, the county’s Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect reported last week. Aside from 1996 when one man killed his six children, the number of child homicides has remained constant over the last nine years, agency officials said.

Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic Hope, said the child’s death “has deeply affected the whole community. People are outraged Elijah died, and he didn’t need to die. We are going to get justice and we’re going to hold that system accountable.”

The Department of Children and Family Services has declined to comment on Elijah’s death, citing state confidentiality laws and the pending criminal investigation.

Elijah’s relatives, many of whom put small stuffed animals in the child’s tiny casket, found it difficult to read tributes. But as one would break down sobbing, another relative would come to the podium to offer comfort and continue the reading.

The child’s cousins read remarks from an uncle, Errol Lawrence, who remembered how Elijah would “come to my room after your bath and I would comb your hair while you ate a piece of chocolate candy. Then I would spray some cologne on you and your little face would light up and crinkle as the cold mist hit you behind the ears.

“I wish I could have taught you to play the piano or draw or enjoy good music and books.”

Another cousin remembered the laughter on Mother’s Day and Thanksgiving and how Elijah “was always happy at home with his immediate family.”

He also remembered the abuse, the marks, the bruises. “But now, no more abuse and suffering,” he said. “Just peace.”

Elijah’s cousin Crystal Lawrence asked mourners to set a goal to be accomplished each year for the deceased child. “Elijah died on my birthday,” she said. “Whenever May 10 comes, I will achieve a goal for Elijah. He didn’t get to have a goal, so achieve one for him.”

After Elijah was burned April 25, Hightower, whose mother, Brenda Craney, was the child’s foster mother, told investigators that she had run a bath about noon that day. She said Elijah asked to go to the bathroom but remained longer than she expected.

When she checked, she said, he was sitting in the tub of hot water. He suffered severe burns over nearly half his body, investigators said, adding that Hightower’s account does not match evidence in the case.

Hightower is scheduled to be arraigned May 26. She is being held in lieu of $1-million bail.

A physician who examined Elijah after the incident angrily dismissed the possibility that his scalding was accidental.

Elijah died while a hearing was underway that could have allowed him to be returned to his mother. Officials at County-USC Medical Center interrupted the hearing and called his mother and foster mother to the hospital to inform them that the child had died.

Lawrence said her son went to live with Craney as his foster mother in September 1996, after the child’s father was accused of beating Elijah’s half sister.

Shortly after he went to Craney’s home, Lawrence said, he began to complain of always being hungry and he was “always dirty from head to toe.”