Left: Google Maps photo of Family Dollar on Euclid Ave. in Cleveland, Ohio where Curtis Witcher, right, was found unresponsive in June 2023. Inset: Timmeka Eggleton booking photo Cuyahoga County Prosecutors Office. Right: Curtis Witcher (YouTube screengrab/WKYC).
Three months after a judge took Curtis Witcher, 3, out of his foster parent’s custody — he had been with them for a more than 2 years — the boy’s biological mother, Timmeka Eggleton murdered him. This week, she pleaded guilty to that and other crimes in a courtroom in Ohio.
Eggleton, 31, who was indicted last year in Cuyahoga County, pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder, felonious assault and endangering children. She was deemed incompetent to stand trial by a judge last year but after undergoing court-ordered treatment she was reevaluated in November and deemed eligible to face charges. She also faced an aggravated murder charge but that count was dropped as part of her plea bargain this week.
She will be sentenced on July 22 and faces life in prison.
Witcher died on June 14, 2023, and according to medical examiners, he suffered blunt force trauma. Prosecutors said last year the child was found unresponsive in his stroller inside of a Family Dollar in Cleveland. He was transported to an area hospital and pronounced dead.
Medical examiners told prosecutors, according to People, that the boy’s injuries “could not have been accidentally inflicted.”
Court records show five days after Witcher’s death, Eggleton was arrested and charged. When unveiling her indictment, prosecutors said last year that she had initially “provided false information about the events leading up to her child’s death.”
Local Fox affiliate WJW interviewed the foster parents, who did not identify themselves, after the boy had died.
“Everything, he meant everything to our family,” the foster father said, adding that he and the foster mother had known the child since he was just a week old.
WJW reported that Witcher was permanently taken out of their custody and given back to Eggleton in March 2023 despite concerns raised by the child’s foster parents about the safety of his biological mother’s home.
An attorney appointed to represent the toddler reportedly filed a motion with the court that same month, claiming that Eggleton had refused to let him into her house to conduct an assessment.
“I was to visit with the child outside only. I was to be accompanied by someone else and all visits must be pre-arranged, i.e. unannounced visits are not permitted. The mother was verbally abusive, beyond what is typical, speaking in a very insulting and demeaning manner, as well as swearing and being dishonest. She also stated I was not to speak to her of anything she did not want to discuss; it was not clear if she meant permanently or just on that call,” the motion stated.
Despite this, the juvenile court judge handling the case agreed to leave the boy with Eggleton. She had completed parenting classes and had also undergone mental health treatment, the outlet reported.
Placing the child with Eggleton would be “appropriate,” Cuyahoga County Juvenile Judge Alison Floyd found. She ordered that continued supervision stop and granted full legal custody to Eggleton.
Curtis Witcher was dead almost exactly three months later. An unidentified caseworker told WJW she was devastated when Witcher was reported dead. She said his placement with Eggleton in March was part of what drove her to quit.
Witcher’s foster mother said last June: “He had a loving family. He should be in our arms.”
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