Trial Review: Jury Dismisses Charges Against Man Accused of Murdering a Child

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After being held in jail for a year and a half, a murder defendant was found not guilty of murdering a two-year-old boy.

James Embre was cleared of felony murder, first-degree cruelty to children and second-degree cruelty to children charges in connection to the death of Aceyson Aizim Ahmad on the 3400 block of A Street, SE on April 17, 2018. According to court documents, Embre, 26, was involved in a romantic relationship with Ahmad’s mother.

After hours of deliberating on Oct. 4, a jury found Embre not guilty of all five charges.

A release order for Embre was filed on Oct. 4.

Trial Breakdown:

During the three-week trial, the jury heard from several witnesses, including the victim’s sister, who was the only eyewitness in the case, the baby’s godmother, the baby’s mother, workers at the child’s preschool and several forensics experts.

Three of Aceyson’s teachers said the school conducted wellness checks every day. All three educators testified that on the day of the murder, Aceyson had no bruises or marks on him.

According to the women, Embre picked Aceyson up from school on the day he died. After leaving school, Aceyson and Embre can be seen on surveillance footage going into a liquor store about a block away from the apartment.

Aceyson’s mom testified that she saw Aceyson when they walked in the door and he was “fine.”

She also said Embre had never been violent towards her or her children except on one occasion when he hit her daughter as a form of punishment.

The mother said that she instructed her daughter to punch Embre in the face and even asked, “was that enough” and when the daughter responded, “no” she instructed her to hit him again. She then said she also hit Embre as well.

According to defense counsel Jonathan Zucker, the mother also testified that Embre was not alone with the children. She said she fed Aceyson and his sister that night. The mother said she was on the phone from the time Aceyson returned home from school until the 9-1-1 call was made, which was approximately 2 hours later.

Aceyson’s sister said, in video footage from a police car, that her brother fell off the bed twice and Embre came in and put him back on the bed twice. She also noted that Embre had a “mad face” because Aceyson kept falling off of the bed.

However, she testified during trial that Embre hit the little boy in the back while he lay in the bed.

Aceyson’s godmother testified that there were at least three incidents where Aceyson had been injured before Embre even began dating his mother.

She said that two of the incidents were caused by Aceyson’s sister, one being a black eye after she hit him in the face with a truck and another time when she was caught standing on Aceyson when he was one and half years old.

The godmother said she had also seen cigarette burns on Aceyson in the past. When she confronted his mother about it, she told her that he, “likes to play with lighters.”

The godmother also said the sister had gotten into trouble for fighting other children at school.

Zucker said that he believed Aceyson’s sister jumped on Aceyson until he died, based on her tendency to be violent towards him and other children.

“There is not one iota of physical evidence that would convict James Embre of this crime,” Zucker told the jury during closing arguments on Oct. 3. “If you as a juror believe, and I hate to say this, a six-year-old pathological liar then you have been fooled by the prosecution.”

A pediatric abuse and neglect specialist, as well as, a forensic anthropologist and the medical examiner said, in their opinion, they did not believe it was possible for a six-year-old to cause the injuries that killed Aceyson. According to the medical examiner, an adult’s fist could have only caused the child’s injuries.

A forensic pathologist, who was called to testify by the defense, disagreed with the other doctors.

“The constellation of bruises do not formulate markings of knuckles which means there’s nothing that could really tell me that he was punched as opposed to being jumped on,” said the pathologist.

During closing statements, the prosecution said Embre wanted to have a bigger disciplinary role in the children’s lives and was upset that he could not be.

“All James Embre wanted to do was to get high and drink and it angered him that he had to care for children that were not his without being able to punish them,” said the prosecutor during her closing arguments.

The prosecutor said that when the police examined the apartment where Aceyson died they found alcohol and marijuana and it was known through Embre’s mother’s testimony that he was passionate about video games.

The prosecutor also said Embre was the only possible culprit of the crime because the size of the abrasions on Aceyson were not consistent with a six-year-old’s fingernails.