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Reprinted with permission by the Tulsa World
10/03/03
Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page A11 of News
Suspect arrested in 1984
slaying
Nicole Marshall, World
Staff Writer
A
California man is accused of killing a 2-year-old boy while he was
living in Tulsa in 1984.
A
California man was charged Thursday with the 1984 killing of a 2-year-old
Tulsa boy and was arrested later in the day by San Bernadino police
on a first-degree murder warrant.
Ray
Velez Martinez is accused of killing Steven Ballandby, court records
show. Martinez formerly dated the child's mother, but she broke
up with him shortly after Steven's death, Tulsa Police Detective
Danielle Bishop said during a phone interview from California.
Martinez
was baby-sitting Steven and his brother on March 17, 1984. At the
time of the child's death, Martinez told police that he took the
boys to the park and that Steven was injured when he fell off a
merry-go-round, newspaper reports show.
The
child became ill at his home that night, and his mother and Martinez
took him to a hospital.
"We
do believe that they went to the park, because both kids were muddy
when they came home, and it had been raining that day," Bishop
said. "But we have determined that the injuries were not consistent
with a fall."
She
said Steven's death was ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner's
Office in 1984. At the time of his death, police said he apparently
died from blood loss due to a liver injury, newspaper reports show.
Martinez
moved to California later that year, Bishop said.
The
case then stalled for several years until detectives reopened it
in 2000, she said.
"Child
abuse investigations have come a long way in 20 years. We took the
case and the autopsy report and presented it to forensic pediatricians
and asked them whether this sort of injury could have happened like
he (Martinez) said," Bishop said.
A
pediatrician concurred with the medical examiner that the death
was not accidental and that it was the result of "blunt force
trauma to the abdomen," she said.
Detectives
had to relocate all of the witnesses and interview them about the
child's death. The boy's mother still lives in the Tulsa area, she
said.
Detectives
presented the evidence to the District Attorney's Office, and the
first-degree murder charge was filed Thursday. In preparation for
the warrant, Bishop contacted the San Bernadino Police, and they
found Martinez.
Bishop
and Detective Darren Carlock went to California on Wednesday night
so they could interview Martinez there after his arrest.
Bishop
credited a multidisciplinary team -- doctors, police, prosecutors
and social service agencies at the Tulsa Children's Justice Center
-- with helping solve the case.
The
center, at 2829 S. Sheridan Road, is operated by the nonprofit Child
Abuse Network and houses representatives from five agencies.
"The
difference between this case now and the case 20 years ago is the
team approach," Bishop said.
At the Children's
Justice Center, "police work close with the doctors not only
to catch child abuse but to prove that accidents sometimes do happen.
They work to prove the differences between accidental injuries and
injuries caused by abuse," she said.
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