A California barber turned out to be a monster babysitter after he allegedly tortured and murdered a 6-year-old boy he was watching after meeting the mom at church.
Ernest Lamar Love, 41, is accused of beating young Chance Crawford to death with a piece of wood after the boy ‘peed his pants at a local park,’ according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Chance’s mother Charlyn Saffore dropped the boy off at Love’s barbershop in Placentia around 6:30pm so she could go work the night shift at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
She met Love through church and considered him a ‘trusted friend,’ according to a post she made on Instagram before the child’s death.
However, the ‘trusted friend’ repeatedly whacked Chance with the piece of lumber and then poured hydrogen peroxide on his wounds before forcing the first-grader to do ‘push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks,’ according to prosecutors.
The man babysitting Chance Crawford, 6, beat the boy to death with a piece of lumber, according to prosecutors
Ernest Lamar Love, 41, was charged with murder and torture in connection to the heinous crime. Months before the alleged beating, Love was flaunting his barber’s license on social media
Security cameras captured Love entering his own barber shop around three hours before the senseless assault holding the piece of lumber ‘with a reluctant Chance following behind him,’ according to the district attorney.
Chance eventually collapsed and prosecutors say Love drove the boy, who was ‘unconscious and struggling to breathe,’ to the emergency room at CHOC Hospital at around 1:30am.
That’s when doctors witnessed Chance’s severe injuries.
‘Doctors at CHOC discovered that much of Chance’s flesh was missing from his buttocks, leaving raw, gaping wounds, along with subdural hematoma, extreme brain swelling, and other injuries consistent with violent shaking.
‘The little boy also had healing fracture on his shoulder blade,’ according to the charging document, which had some family members on social media questioning if there had been prior abuse.
Chance valiantly fought for his life in the hospital but ultimately died from his injuries on Tuesday afternoon.
He was just three days into first grade.
Vance Crawford, Chance’s father, is pictured with him. Crawford considers Love ‘a monster.’
Chance is pictured on his fifth birthday with his mother Charlyn Saffore, left, and his grandmother, right
Crawford described to KTLA the horrifying ordeal he was put through watching Chance pass away
Vance Crawford, the child’s father, posted a black and white version of the image of his son wearing a crown.
‘I lost a son yesterday the anger I feel is unmatched … but I will get justice,’ he wrote. ‘Rip son daddy loves you.’
Crawford described to KTLA the horrifying ordeal he was put through watching Chance pass away.
‘Seeing my son like that and in the condition he was in, in critical condition from the time he was brought in, it’s just devastating,’ Crawford said. ‘He didn’t even die peacefully. He died a tragic death and it’s not fair.’
Crawford considers Love ‘a monster.’
‘He deserves what’s coming. I’m going to let God handle him.’
Charlyn Saffore, Chance’s mother, also memorialized her son, describing him as ‘a light to the world he lived in.’
Love is pictured with his barbering certificate in May. At the time, he said he was bettering himself, adding he does everything for his children
Months later, Lamar posted a picture of himself beaming as he holds his wooden barber plaque
Saffore set up a GoFundMe to pay for funeral expenses. So far, people have donated $15,263 toward her $20,000 goal
‘It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we have to share the unexpected passing of my beloved son, Chance. He passed…at the hands of someone who I thought was a trusted friend,’ she wrote on Instagram.
‘Chance was a dearly loved son, grandson, and a light to the world he lived in. He was only 6 years old and he was intelligent, lively, sharp, witty, and had a smile that would light up an entire room.
‘If you knew him, you would have loved him like his entire community did,’ Saffore wrote on Instagram.
Saffore set up a GoFundMe to pay for funeral expenses. So far, people have donated $15,263 toward her $20,000 goal.
KTLA reported that Saffore met Love at Amazing Church in Lake Elsinore.
A church leader said Love was suspended from the church for inappropriate relationships with female parishioners.
A anonymous man who used to go to the church described Love as a womanizer with an anger problem.
‘Every few months, he would show have a different woman there at the church,’ a former church member said.
Love has been described as someone with an anger problem who dated many women from his former church
A former churchgoer told KTLA he never saw Love take his anger out on children
Love pleaded not guilty to the four charges against him, two of which include murder and torture. He is currently facing 32 years to life in prison plus five years if he’s found guilty on all charges
He continued: ‘He was kind of stern…He would get angry about certain things, you could see it on him, but I never saw him take it out on kids.’
Love’s Facebook is full of pictures of him flaunting his newly minted cosmetology ad barber license.
It appears as though he just got the license in May.
In one post where he’s holding his certificate, Love revealed in the caption that he is a father.
‘It’s hard to take time and improve yourself when your a true parent because my kids come before me,’ he wrote.
In mid-July, he posted another photo of himself decked out in Chicago Bulls merch and holding his official wooden plaque.
Love pleaded not guilty to the four charges against him, which include murder, torture, assault on a child with force likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in death, and causing injuries leading to paralysis or death.
He was arraigned Wednesday morning and is being held without bail.
Love faces a maximum sentence of 32 years to life in prison plus five years if he’s found guilty on all charges.