REMEMBERING MIKKAH

Mikkah Aramis Edwards was only 13 months old when his life ended.

He lived with his mother, Toni Brown, and his two older siblings. At just over a year old, Mikkah was still a baby, surrounded by an older brother and sibling who knew him not as a court case or a victim, but simply as their little brother. His mother was working two jobs while attending college. After her regular babysitter unexpectedly quit in January 2012, Mikkah's father, Ryan Russell Edwards, agreed to stay at the home for several days and care for Mikkah and the other children while Toni worked.

After Mikkah died, Toni described the devastation that swept through the family. She said she cried every day and that her children cried for their little brother too.

Mikkah was only beginning to experience life. There should have been years of watching him develop his own personality, interests and dreams. Instead, his family was left grieving a little boy who had barely reached his first birthday.

MIKKAH'S STORY

On the evening of January 26, 2012, Toni saw Mikkah before leaving for work at approximately 10:20 p.m. Mikkah appeared healthy. He was behaving normally. He was left in the care of his father. During the night, Mikkah's 12 year old sibling went downstairs to get a drink of water. What he witnessed became critical evidence in the criminal case. He saw Ryan holding something that was tied around 13 month old Mikkah's neck and swinging the baby through the air. The child later described Mikkah as being swung like a rag doll. He testified that it continued for approximately 30 to 45 seconds. When Ryan realized the older child was watching, he stopped and placed Mikkah on the floor. Mikkah's sibling wanted to call his mother because he was worried about the baby. He could not. Ryan had the only phone in the house. The following morning, January 27, Toni returned home from work. She checked on her children and found Mikkah in bed with Ryan, appearing to be asleep. When Toni kissed her baby, she noticed an abrasion on his forehead. She asked Ryan what had happened. Ryan told her that Mikkah might have fallen from a toilet. He picked Mikkah up, told Toni that the baby was fine and said he was simply tired because he had been awake late. But Toni noticed something was terribly wrong. Mikkah's head was wobbly when Ryan picked him up. Then Mikkah's older sibling told his mother what he had witnessed during the night. Toni tried to wake Mikkah. He would not respond. His head was limp. She immediately rushed him to a pediatric urgent care facility. Ryan and the other children went with her. At the urgent care facility, nurses realized Mikkah was in respiratory arrest. His condition was so critical that he needed to be airlifted to a children's hospital. Police were contacted after Mikkah's sibling told medical personnel what he had witnessed. Ryan gave police a different explanation. He claimed Mikkah had been sick and vomiting and said he had begun play fighting with the baby in an effort to increase his energy. Mikkah was airlifted to the hospital and placed on life support. Doctors delivered devastating news to his mother. Mikkah had suffered catastrophic brain damage. Part of his brain stem was gone. Doctors told Toni that her baby would never be able to breathe or eat independently and would never be able to speak. Mikkah's injuries extended far beyond what could be explained by an accidental fall. Medical examinations revealed two skull fractures and bleeding beneath the covering of his brain. His brain was severely swollen. There was bleeding in his eyes consistent with violent acceleration and deceleration of his head. He also had injuries to his neck, back and chest, bleeding around portions of his spinal cord and an injury inside his mouth that a physician testified was likely caused by a very forceful impact. The medical examiner determined that Mikkah had sustained at least two forceful impacts to his head. Those injuries caused his death. Mikkah remained on life support for several days. There was no way to repair the catastrophic damage that had been done to his brain. Life support was withdrawn. Mikkah died from blunt force trauma to his head. 

WARNING SIGNS

The evidence established that Mikkah was healthy and behaving normally when his mother left for work on January 26. The most immediate warning came from inside the home that night. Mikkah's 12 year old sibling witnessed Ryan swinging the baby by something tied around his neck and understood that what he was seeing was wrong. He wanted to contact his mother. But he did not have access to the phone. The following morning, other warning signs were visible. There was an abrasion on Mikkah's forehead. His head appeared unstable when he was picked up. He could not be awakened. Once Mikkah's sibling was able to tell Toni what he had witnessed, she tried to wake her baby and then rushed him for medical care. I found no evidence in the Georgia Supreme Court decision establishing that child protective services, doctors or another outside agency had previously received reports that Ryan was physically abusing Mikkah. For that reason, Mikkah's case is best described as one involving warning signs during the fatal assault rather than a documented child welfare system failure.

JUSTICE FOR MIKKAH

Ryan Russell Edwards was prosecuted for the killing of his son. In May 2013, a jury found him guilty of malice murder and numerous other crimes arising from the violence inflicted upon Mikkah. The trial court sentenced Ryan to life in prison without the possibility of parole for Mikkah's murder, along with consecutive sentences for several additional offenses. Ryan appealed his convictions to the Supreme Court of Georgia. In 2017, the court upheld his murder conviction and most of the other convictions. It determined that one aggravated battery conviction should have merged with the murder conviction and sent the case back for resentencing on that issue. That ruling did not overturn Ryan's conviction for murdering Mikkah.

 

Ryan Russell Edwards

Relationship to Mikkah: Father

Conviction: Malice murder and additional offenses

Sentence: Life in prison without the possibility of parole for malice murder, with additional consecutive sentences

FOREVER REMEMBERED

One of the people who tried to protect Mikkah that night was a child himself. His 12 year old sibling saw something frightening happening to his baby brother. He recognized that Mikkah was in danger. And he wanted his mother. He simply could not reach her. That detail leaves behind a painful reminder of how Mikkah existed within a family, not merely within the pages of a criminal case. He had siblings who knew his face and his sounds. Children who shared a home with him. Children who cried after he was gone. His mother later said that Mikkah's death devastated the entire family. Weeks afterward, she was still crying every day, and so were her children. For them, January 2012 did not end when the criminal investigation began. They had to return to a world in which their baby brother was suddenly missing from it. Mikkah had only been alive for 13 months. But he had already become someone's little brother. Someone's son. Someone whose absence could be felt throughout a family. The violence inflicted upon Mikkah explains why his life ended. It does not define the life that existed before it. Abuse Angels remembers Mikkah Aramis Edwards as the little boy his family loved and the baby his siblings grieved when he was gone. We remember Mikkah. We speak his name. And Mikkah Aramis Edwards will not be forgotten.