Gulfport man sentenced for killing girlfriend’s five-year-old son

GULFPORT, Miss. (WXXV)- A Gulfport man was sentenced for killing his girlfriend’s five-year-old son back in 2023.

Thirty-two-year-old Denzel Jamal Blakely pled guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder and felony child abuse.

The investigation began on April 14, 2023 when the Gulfport Police Department responded to Emerald Pines Apartments in reference to reports of an unresponsive five-year-old boy.

The child was transported to Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Gulfport Police detectives interviewed Blakely and the child’s mother, Lachelle Washington.

Washington was also charged in this case with felony child neglect.

During the interview, Blakely told authorities that they were having problems with mold in the apartment and that the child had gone to sleep around 8 p.m., but woke up a few hours later saying he was sick. Blakely sent the child back to bed.

Autopsy results revealed that the child’s cause of death was due to blunt force injuries, not because of mold.

After the autopsy, detectives confronted Blakely about the child’s injuries. Blakely admitted that he slapped the child in the stomach several times because he thought the child spat on the floor and demonstrated to police how he would slap the child harder and harder each time the child denied spitting on the floor.

Blakely is sentenced to 35 years for second-degree murder and 20 years for felony child abuse. The two sentences will run consecutively for a total of 55 years, 15 years suspended, leaving 40 years to serve in the custody of Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Blakely will also have five years of reporting post-release supervision and ten years of nonreporting post-release supervision upon his release from custody.