Derrick Coles (Bexar County Jail). Background: The street in Texas where Coles lived when he killed his young son (Google Maps).
In a chilling case that has gripped the community, a 35-year-old Texas father, Derrick Coles, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for the brutal murder of his 12-year-old son, Danilo Coles. The father subjected his son to horrific abuse, including forcing him to hold 50-pound boxes for prolonged periods, scalding him with boiling water, and inflicting severe beatings that ultimately claimed the young boy’s life.
Judge Joel Perez of the 437th District Court delivered the sentence on Monday, following an August jury verdict that found Coles guilty of multiple felonies. These included four counts of first-degree injury to a child resulting in serious bodily harm.
Derrick Coles was not the only one facing justice in this tragic case; his then-wife, Kapri Cheatom, was also apprehended and charged with injury to a child resulting in serious bodily injury concerning Danilo’s death.
The grim details of Danilo’s demise were revealed through a medical examiner’s report, cited by San Antonio CBS affiliate KENS. The report concluded that the boy’s death was due to toxicity from excessive exertion, and the death was classified as a homicide.
The tragic events that led to Danilo’s death unfolded on February 6, 2022, when San Antonio Police Department officers were dispatched to a residence on the 7600 block of Wurzbach Road. A distressing 911 call reported a child who had stopped breathing, prompting an immediate response from law enforcement.
As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the San Antonio Police Department on Feb. 6, 2022, responded to a 911 call about a child who stopped breathing at a home located in the 7600 block of Wurzbach Road.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders reportedly found a 12-year-old boy who was unresponsive and lying on the floor. Coles, who identified himself as the boy’s father, reportedly told police that his son had fallen down in the shower, KENS reported, citing a probable cause affidavit.
Emergency Medical Services personnel attempted to resuscitate the child before transporting him to University Hospital on Medical Drive. The medical staffers who treated the boy, later identified as Danilo, reportedly told investigators that the boy had sustained “several suspicious injuries,” San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT reported.
Shortly after arriving at the facility doctors reportedly said that Danilo had “no brain activity,” pronouncing him dead later that night.
Detectives took Coles and Cheatom in for questioning where the couple allegedly admitted to physically abusing Danilo in the lead up to his death.
Per KENS, Coles told investigators that his son had recently moved in with him and Cheatom after being raised in Chicago by his mother. The boy had allegedly been abused during his years in Chicago. Coles reportedly said that when Danilo moved in, he immediately started acting “disrespectful” and had “caused problems” for him and Cheatom, though specifics were not mentioned.
As punishment for acting out, Coles and Cheatom would reportedly force Danilo to do pushups and stand up for hours holding boxes filled with water bottles that weighed approximately 50 pounds. Coles also reportedly admitted that he “busted” Danilo’s lip a few hours before his death.
On the day of Danilo’s death, Cheatom told detectives that the boy woke up at around 11 a.m. and cursed at her, San Antonio news station WOAI reported. He was then reportedly ordered to hold up a pair of boxes weighing about 50 pounds. When he couldn’t hold the boxes up any longer, he was reportedly given a second set of smaller boxes. When he could no longer hold them, he was ordered to do pushups. Per the report, this punishment went on for approximately four or five hours.
Danilo then took a shower, which is when Cheatom reportedly said he fell, resulting in a cut over his eye. Danilo was then allegedly made to do pushups again. When he couldn’t do any more calisthenics, Coles allegedly grabbed a belt and beat the boy, who was on the floor “in a fetal position,” per WTFX.
The doctors who treated Danilo reportedly told police that the child’s injuries were not consistent with falling in the shower. Per WTFX, Danilo sustained “severe injuries to his buttocks where the skin was hanging off of the buttocks, internal stomach bleeding, and ‘whipping marks’ on his torso and legs.”
In addition to the physical punishment, Danilo was reportedly ordered to write, “I will obey all people that live in the household,” repeatedly in a notebook.
Cheatom is likely to go to trial next year. She is currently scheduled to appear in court for a motion hearing on Oct. 31.
