Police report this morning that 6-year-old Jacob Gibson died on Sunday, not quite a week after the horrific beating he received at the hands of his parents.
Benny Gibson, 49, and his wife, Jennifer Edna Paul, 37, remain in jail -- now suspected of killing, as opposed to merely brutalizing, their little boy.
As we reported on Wednesday, this family had been on the radar of Child Protective Services since 2005 with both Jacob and a younger child, Velladine, taken from the home -- and later returned -- at different times.
Last Monday, just after 1 a.m., police and paramedics responding to home in the 7100 block of North 19th Avenue found the boy barely clinging to life, with severe injuries to his body and head.
A doctor at Phoenix Children's Hospital pointed out to police that some of the wounds appeared to have been made with a belt buckle. One blow had left a clear imprint of the buckle on the boy's skin, records state. A wire hanger had also reportedly been used against the boy.
At first the parents gave conflicting stories to police: The dog dragged him down the stairs, he was beat up by a cousin, he had a rough game of soccer.
Cops say Gibson admitted to beating the boy with the belt and buckle, but said it had been his wife who hurt the kid's head. Paul, meanwhile, tried to put the bulk of the blame on Gibson, who she said also occasionally withheld food from the boy as punishment.
Coming so soon after last month's mind-altering child-abuse story of Ame Deal and her final trip to the box, the nearly equally messed-up case of Gibson and Paul makes Phoenix look like some kind of hell for children.
