Teen's Starvation Ruled a Homicide

By JOANN LOVIGLIO
.c The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The starvation death of an 18-year-old autistic man has
been ruled a homicide, and authorities are focusing their investigation on
family members who were caring for him while his father was jailed for unpaid
parking tickets.

Brahim Dukes died from malnutrition and dehydration on Dec. 29, two weeks
into his father's 38-day jail sentence, the Medical Examiner's Office
concluded. The teen-ager weighed 94 pounds at the time of his death, down
from 130 pounds previously, authorities said.

Dewey Gillespie, 44, the teen-ager's father and main caregiver, was jailed by
a Traffic Court judge for unpaid traffic tickets. He was released two days
after his son's death.

Gillespie said he went to court on Dec. 13 with $750 in cash and begged the
judge not to send him to jail, saying he was the person who best understood
the needs of his son, who could not speak and needed assistance using the
bathroom and dressing himself.

Gillespie owed more than $2,000 on 11 unpaid traffic citations, most for
driving without a license.

``I begged,'' Gillespie said Tuesday. ``I asked to get on a payment program
and he said, 'There is no payment program. If you don't have it all you've
got 38 days in jail.'''

The presiding judge, Robert M. Shaffer, did not recall Gillespie offering to
make a partial payment or referring to his son's disability, Traffic Court
Administrative Judge Fortunato Perri said.

``You all hear all kinds of stories in this court,'' Perri said. ``Had this
gentleman or even someone from the prison brought this to my attention, I
would have asked to reduce the order.''

After his arrest for driving without a license in 1997, Gillespie was put on
a payment plan but defaulted on $1,558 of what he owed, Perri said. Under the
$40-a-day formula that traffic judges use in determining sentences for people
who don't pay their fines, Gillespie was sentenced to 38 days, Perri said.

There was no telephone listing for Shaffer, and he could not immediately be
reached for comment.

Gillespie also disputed the coroner's ruling that his son died of starvation,
saying the teen-ager's stepmother would never have neglected him. He also
said his son was naturally very thin and at 5-feet-9, weighed only around 98
pounds, not 130.

``I have been with this woman for 17 years and she has taken care of Brahim
like one of her own,'' said Gillespie, who has nine other children ranging in
age from 1 to 13. ``This is an 18-year-old boy who can get what he wants if
he's hungry. He probably just missed me and took sick.''

Gillespie said his wife called him at the prison Dec. 27 to say his son
wasn't eating. The next time he was able to call, on Dec. 29, he discovered
Dukes was dead.

``My son did not starve to death,'' he said. ``Something is wrong here and if
I have to have another autopsy done, I'll do it to clear my family's name.''

Dukes' biological mother has battled longtime drug problems and has not been
part of his life, Gillespie said.

Police are conducting an investigation involving family members who lived in
the home, Philadelphia police spokesman Sgt. Roland Lee said Tuesday. He
would not elaborate.

AP-NY-03-20-02 0523EST

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.