Montrais Boyd Sr., the DeKalb County father accused of killing his 5-year-old son and burying him in a backyard, has pleaded not guilty to murder.
He's remained in jail since February, shortly after authorities say he slit Montrais Boyd Jr.'s throat with a knife and beat him with a shovel. Family members have said the 25-year-old father's mental help was deteriorating and he had been diagnosed as schizophrenic.
The child lived at a home on Rocky Pine Drive outside Lithonia with his grandmother. The parents, who lived in California, arrived for an unannounced visit on Feb. 21.
The grandmother and child’s mother left the house, leaving the father with the 5-year-old and three other kids, police have said.
When they came home, the kids told the mom what happened and she went out to the backyard and dug up her son’s body, police told Channel 2 Action News. The boy was partially decapitated.
It was the most serious of recent allegations against the father. He’d also been accused in 2017 of driving naked in Arizona with a small child and then ramming a patrol car.
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The suspect’s aunt, Tomicka Brown, said he shouldn’t have been let out of jail in Arizona.
“I feel like he was crying for help and he didn’t get the help that he needed,” she said in the days after the death.
The defendant’s attorney hasn’t filed any motions related to his mental health, according to court records.
Prosecutors, however, have filed a notice of their intent to seek a sentence of life without parole.
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