Left: Dahrian Zamora and his son Dawson Zamora (Facebook). Right: Chelsea Berg (Collin County Jail).
In a heartfelt Facebook post, a Texas father recounted the tragic circumstances surrounding his 3-year-old son’s death, alleging that the child’s mother allowed her boyfriend to brutally assault the boy. This attack reportedly resulted in severe injuries, including “global brain damage,” ultimately leading to the child’s death earlier this week.
The father, Dahrian Zamora, shared updates about his son Dawson’s declining health condition in the days leading up to the boy’s passing on December 7. Dawson had been in a medically induced coma since October, following the alleged assault, and had only recently awoken, according to Zamora’s account.
“The situation has been grim,” Zamora wrote on December 3.
“Though he’s opened his eyes, he doesn’t respond to movement or sounds,” Zamora lamented. “There are no smiles, no cries, no sounds. His body has become rigid; his wrists curl inward, and his feet remain inflexible. His prognosis remains unchanged with evidence of global brain damage, as shown by CT and MRI scans, leaving him in a vegetative state. My son Dawson is no longer the Dawson we knew.”
Following Dawson’s reported death, the boy’s mother, Chelsea Berg, faced upgraded charges to capital murder, as per court documents accessed by Law&Crime. Zamora disclosed on Facebook that Berg had been attempting to visit Dawson in the hospital, prompting him to seek a protective order against her on October 27, according to court records.
A Collin County judge ordered on October 28 that “the mother must arrange for professional supervision during any contact with either child,” acknowledging Dawson’s critical condition, which included being on life support and undergoing multiple surgeries.
Zamora was appointed as the “temporary JMC” and granted “primary” custody of Dawson, with him describing the court proceedings on Facebook.
“I have had to acquire an attorney and go to war against Chelsea when it comes to decision making, custody, life and death decisions,” he wrote on Dec. 3. “I’m here today to finally break the news that I have been granted sole conservatorship, sole custody, sole decision maker, and sole decision maker over life and death. Chelsea has no say so or power in anything with my kids.”
Zamora announced Dawson’s death on Monday night, saying he “died on my birthday” on Sunday morning.
“His gift to me was his final breath and we are now forever interlocked with my birth and his death,” the father explained. “He held on to spend one last birthday with me and refused to go until then.”
Zamora described how Berg was “being charged at the highest degree due to her lack of effort in protecting our children.” He said the loss of his boy has broken him emotionally.
“My son didn’t have to die, this could have been prevented,” Zamora wrote on Facebook. “He should have been protected and now he was murdered. My THREE YEAR OLD MURDERED and I’m left carrying this and I don’t know where to go from here.”
Zamora added, “I’m 31 years old having to bury my 3-year-old son and I obviously wasn’t prepared for this because we shouldn’t have to bury our children.”
Berg, 30, was initially charged with injury to a child, according to Collin County authorities. The mother’s boyfriend, Christopher Thomas Alexander, 30, was charged with injury to a child causing great bodily injury, stalking, and tampering with physical evidence with intent to impair, according to the Collin County Sheriff’s Office. Both now face capital murder charges of a person under 10.
Berg had posted a $100,000 bond for her release and was rearrested on Monday, with a bond for the murder charge not being set yet. Alexander has remained in custody since his arrest on Oct. 14.
After the alleged assault, Alexander brought Dawson to a hospital in McKinney — a large suburb 35 miles due north of Dallas — and told staff he heard a “thud” and found the boy injured, according to court documents obtained by Dallas-based Fox affiliate KDFW. Doctors determined the boy was suffering from severe trauma, including a brain bleed, bruising in various stages of healing all over his body, wounds to his chest and stomach, and other injuries, according to law enforcement.
Such injuries were not consistent with a lone thud, hospital staff determined, and local police were called. A warrant for Alexander’s arrest was issued later that same day.
When questioned by detectives, Berg relayed a narrative in which she left Dawson with her boyfriend around 7:20 a.m. on the day in question, police say. Then, she received a text about the boy eating lunch. Sometime after that, the boy’s mother received a frantic phone call from Alexander about heading to the hospital, police say.
At the hospital, Berg said she first heard about Alexander’s claim of the purported thud while the boyfriend was in another room. After the so-called thud, Alexander allegedly told Berg he found the boy injured. The child’s mother said her boyfriend did not elaborate beyond that, law enforcement claimed.
Alexander declined to speak with police at the hospital after obtaining a lawyer, according to authorities.
Detectives showed Berg pictures of Dawson’s injuries and, in response, she insisted her son did not have any such injuries when she left him with Alexander while she went to work that day, police say.
A GoFundMe that was launched to raise funds for medical expenses alleges that “Dawson was tragically abused.”
