Monday morning at 5 a.m. Corrine Baker says she woke up screaming for her baby. She looked around and realized she was in jail.
“When you fight so hard to keep someone alive,” says Baker in tears. “And then be blamed for it...”
Police had locked her up as the investigated the brutal killing of her son, 4-year-old Dominick Calhoun. She learned he had been pronounced dead on the news.
Police say the little boy had been beaten so extensively he suffered injuries to his entire body.
Baker says her boyfriend is responsible. He is still in the Genesee County Jail, while she has been released. He has not been charged.
Sources say the man started torturing the boy after he wet his pants, burning his little hands.
Baker says she wanted to take Dominick to the hospital for treatment, but her boyfriend didn’t want to get in trouble.
She says he held her and her son hostage, brutally beating them.
“I was screaming,” says Baker. “Screaming at the top of my lungs, and nothing… and no, no hope inside. I thought I was going to die.”
Neighbors tell NBC25 they heard her screams, but they didn’t want to get involved in a domestic dispute. They say they didn’t realize how bad the situation was.
“Everytime I'd go to Dominick he’d rip me off him, and I'd go back and try to protect him as best I could.”
Baker says she laid on top of her child to shield him from her boyfriend’s brutality. She suffered broken bones, bruises, and cigarette burns. She says she was in and out of consciousness.
Her 8-year-old son witnessed some of the terror before being sent out of the apartment. He now is in protective custody.
Baker says she wants her older son to know she is thinking of him. She wants him back in her custody.
She says she will focus on healing so she can fight for her surviving child, and for justice for a boy killed too young.
