MARGATE, Fla. – A little more than a week after Margate police arrested her aunt and uncle after accusing them of torturing her 15-year-old sister for years, a woman is now accused of participating in the decade of alleged brutality and starvation.
Police arrested Shankyria Latricia Clayton, 20, on Thursday, on three felony charges, after they accused her of joining her aunt and uncle, the girl’s guardians, in caging her sister in two different closets, failing to provide her with adequate food, water and medical care and not reporting the torture to authorities.
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During the girl’s time locked in the closets, she was forced to urinate and defecate in a bucket, police said.
Officers first arrested Latricia Elizabeth Crawley, 46, and Benjamin Deztuan Lockett, 43, last Wednesday after the victim wrote to her online instructor pleading for help and asking someone to get police to come to the home, according to a report. The two have been the girl’s legal guardians since 2014.
An arrest report stated that officers arrived at the house and discovered that Lockett had punched the victim in the head because he thought she had eaten candy, causing her head to slam into the corner of a desk.
The victim suffered a cut to the left side of her head, which was bleeding and had visible swelling, the report stated.
Medics took the victim to Broward Health Coral Springs where officers noticed that she had other injuries on her body, including “scars consistent with ligature marks, bruising, scar tissue, bite marks from insects and symptoms of malnutrition.”
Alleged abuse listed in the arrest report included:
- 2019: 11 years of age, (Lockett) kicked her in the chin, resulting in a noticeable permanent scar, observed by your affiant.
- 2021: 13 years of age, (Crawley) oiled the knees of the victim and forced the victim to kneel on rice for several hours at a time, for several days in a row, resulting in permanent disfigurement to the victim’s knees in the form of scar tissue, observed by this affiant.
- 2021: 13 years of age, (Crawley) tied the victim to a fixed object and struck her toes with a hammer. According to the victim, this resulted in severe pain and bleeding.
- 2022: 14 years of age, (Crawley and Lockett) tied and bound the victim to different objects on multiple occasions with a nylon rope, resulting in permanent disfigurement to the victim’s skin on her shoulders, wrists and areas of her stomach in the form of scarring and hyperpigmentation, observed by your affiant.
- 2022: 14 years of age, (Crawley) threw a pot of boiling water at the victim causing permanent disfigurement in the form of scarring to the victim’s stomach, observed by your affiant.
Officers found two closets at the victim’s home that had locking mechanisms, according to the report.
Droplets of blood were also seen on the floor inside of one of the closets where the victim said she ran to after being punched by Lockett, however, the blood had been cleaned up by the time officers returned later in the day, police said.
Investigators said the victim told officers that she would, at times, be tied up with zip ties inside the closets and was forced to sleep there.
She also told investigators that Crawley “would often pour cold water on (her) while she slept, just to see her wake up.” Another form of punishment by Crawley included taping the girl’s eyes shut while her head was dunked into water.
The victim showed multiple signs of malnutrition and starvation, including bones visible, especially around her spine.
The girl is now in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Clayton, like her aunt and uncle, faces charges of aggravated child abuse and child neglect with great bodily harm. She also faces a charge of failing to report child abuse.
Clayton was being held in the North Broward Bureau on a $60,000 bond as of Friday afternoon; Crawley and Lockett were no longer listed in jail records.