Nyteisha Lattimore and her son, Nylo.
A man who prosecutors say fatally stabbed his ex-girlfriend and threw her 3-year-old son into the Ohio River has pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated murder.
In exchange for pleading guilty, Desean Brown has agreed to serve life without parole. Prosecutors will no longer seek the death penalty.
Brown’s plea on Wednesday, Sept. 10, comes five days after a psychologist testified that he had been trying to fake symptoms of mental illness, apparently to avoid a trial scheduled for Oct. 6. At that Sept. 5 hearing, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Leah Dinkelacker ruled that Brown, 25, was mentally competent to stand trial.
According to prosecutors, Brown fatally stabbed Nyteisha Lattimore in early December 2020. Lattimore’s body was in her Walnut Hills apartment for several days before Brown purchased a body bag on eBay, put her body in the bag, went to a pedestrian bridge, the Purple People Bridge, and tried to throw it into the Ohio River.
Sometime after killing Lattimore, according to prosecutors, Brown threw Nylo – while he was still alive – into the river. Despite searches of the river by divers, Nylo’s body has never been found.
Brown was examined by multiple mental health professionals during the nearly five years he has been in custody. At one point, he was diagnosed with a personality disorder that caused “behavioral disturbances” as well as bipolar disorder. Most psychologists found that he knew right from wrong.
Brown’s attorneys said there were times he would appear psychotic and was almost entirely noncommunicative with them for nine months.
Prosecutors have said that said Brown knew his conduct was wrong because he researched online how to clean up blood and then tried to clean up the crime scene and purchased the body bag. He also lied to an Uber driver who drove him to the river, according to prosecutors, saying the body bag contained clothes and personal items.
A woman told police that Brown blamed Lattimore for having a miscarriage and talked about killing her and Nylo in retaliation, according to prosecutors.
This story will be updated.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Man admits killing ex-girlfriend, throwing her son into Ohio River