NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Two more men were charged on Wednesday with brutally beating their cousin with a belt before leaving him in a bathtub to drown in late-June 2021.
Johnette Booker, 40, and Joevon McConnie, 39, join Mitchaux Booker, 33, who was arrested just two days after Jallen McConnie, 15, was killed.
The three men beat their teenage cousin with their belts at least 50 times before he drowned in the bathtub at Mitchaux's Upper West Side apartment, according to prosecutors.
Jallen had learning disabilities, and his family put him through a hellish “cousins bootcamp” in which they tortured him physically and psychologically because he was struggling with math, prosecutors said.
He was sent from Georgia to live at his cousin’s apartment, which he was allegedly rarely allowed to leave.
A month after he moved, he was dead.
Johnette and Joevon had told police they weren’t home at the time of the beating, but they were arrested and charged with similar crimes to Mitchaux recently.
"The defendants knew full well what caused Jallen McConnie's injuries and death," Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Nicole Blumberg told the court on Wednesday. "They were active participants in the senseless beatings that occurred shortly before his life was so prematurely cut short."
Prosecutors charged Mitchaux and Johnette with manslaughter. And all three are charged with assault, gang assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Each cousin pleaded not guilty at the arraignment Wednesday.
The judge ordered Mitchaux, Johnette and Joevon held on $750,00 bail, $500,000 bail and $150,000 bond respectively.
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