A Fort Belvoir woman who allegedly beat her son for not cleaning his bedroom pleaded guilty to assault charges on Monday (Jan. 27), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced yesterday.
According to court documents, China Ashley Charles, a 38-year-old woman who lived in military housing on the Army installation, called police on Oct. 8, 2024 to report that her son had run away after she “disciplined him for not cleaning” his bedroom.
Officers found the 10-year-old boy sitting on a swing at a nearby park and saw that he had “multiple black, yellow, and red bruises on his upper and middle back and a large bump on the back of his head,” a statement of facts says. The boy was taken to Fort Belvoir Community Hospital and diagnosed with “abrasions and contusions.”
During an interview, the boy said he had been getting ready for his school’s picture day that morning when his mother came into his room “and became very angry about its cleanliness.”
“She struck him with a chair, dresser drawers, a hot iron, a charging wire, a hairbrush, and a large serving spoon,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release. “She attempted to strike his face with the iron, but he blocked it with his hands. When Charles hit the child with the charging wire, his finger was cut and began bleeding.”
Charles later had her son sit in a “cold bath, periodically splashing water on his face,” in an attempt to cover up his injuries, according to prosecutors. The boy escaped through the window of his bedroom on the house’s second story and jumping off of the roof.
Per court documents, Charles’s son had run away on multiple previous occasions after she “disciplined” him “for not adequately completing his chores,” including once on Sept. 27, 2024, when police found him at a neighbor’s house.
“[He] was crying, and he begged the officers to not take him home,” the statement of facts says. “He dragged his feet on the ground as the officers walked him back and asked them not to leave for fear of getting ‘hurt’ again. He reported that his mother was always angry at him and had grounded him for over two years.”
Charles allegedly admitted to hitting her son with various objects during an interview with Child Protective Services on Oct. 9, 2024. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the boy’s sister reported that Charles had been beating him for the past four years.
Charles was indicted by a grand jury on Nov. 7, 2024 and again on Jan. 8 on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, assault by beating, striking or wounding, and child cruelty.
After pleading guilty on all three counts, Charles faces up to 16 years in prison, with a sentencing hearing scheduled for May 9, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.
