Greetings to you all and thank you for taking the time to share my nephew's, Jerejo, story. I wanted to first reply to your comments before going over what happened.
I'm the oldest of 4 children and Kandi is #3. Being the oldest, I had my children first. On my birthday in 2006, Kandi found out and told me that she was pregnant. Jeremiah was #5 of 7 grandchildren at the time, but he was the 2nd grandson born after my son. This made him very special to me. In fact Adrian and I named Jerejo. Adrian would come up with his first name and I would give him his middle name. I love this story. So Kandi called me and told me that Adrian found a name he liked and their son was to be named Jeremiah. Now it was my turn to get a name that would sound good with Jeremiah McRath. I got on my knees and prayed to God about my nephew and when I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was my bible. I took it as a sign for where I would get his name. So I opened it and the first named I touched was Josiah. I called Kandi and told her and she told me that was the same way Adrian found the name Jeremiah. I was blown back by that. But here is where it becomes official that my nephew will be named Jeremiah Josiah McRath. I went back to the bible to read the chapter and find out more about Josiah. Well Josiah was a righteous king that followed the word of the prophet Jeremiah. God is the GREATEST.
Adrian didn't want his son named after him because he is named after his father, who killed his uncle early 2005. Then three weeks later Adrian's mom past away from a heart attack. Adrian was only 15 when this happen. Adrian's parents was married but split up when he was about 2 because of abuse from the and when he was about 8 years old he was placed in foster care and had not seen his mother until 2 weeks before she past. When he found out that his father was looking for his mother after he killed his brother, Adrian ran away from the group home to find his mother first. He wanted to protect her. I only know so much because his mother was brought into our family, through marriage of my grandmother's sister, when she was a child.
I know that knowing this about him doesn't make this event right and I'm NOT trying to get people to feel sorry for Adrian or nothing like that. It doesn't change that he married that female or that he too whipped my nephew. It does show a pattern of a certain life style. In fact Adrian's wife was a ward of the court as well. Sometimes two broken people can't support each other enough to heal.
Moving forward, Jeremiah was born a whooping 11 lbs, 12 oz and 24 in. Sadly, his parents went their own ways after her turned one and entered that female. In September 2009, Jerejo did have some bruises on his bum. This confirms some of my mother’s comment about that. I told my sister either she handles it or I will. My way leaves her with visitations. She stopped Jerejo from going to his father's house. That lasted for six months. Sadly, Kandi and I had a fall out over a different situation and I didn't see her or Jerejo for about four months. When I did, it was about six weeks before his death. He told me he was at his dad's and that raised a very serious conversation between Kandi and me. She told me that Adrian agreed to NEVER leave Jerejo alone with that female, and Jerejo had been asking for his dad, she was raised with her father and couldn't see keeping Jerejo away from Adrian after the agreement. I understood her choice even if I didn't like it. Plus there wasn't anything I could, because after all Jerejo wasn't my child and Kandi hadn't done anything to her son for him not to be with her.
March 10th was the last time I had seen my nephew. I had dropped him and my sister off to a birthday party. As big as he was, I would pick him up. Throw him up in the air and catch him, hug and kiss so much. He was like my own son and I’m so sad that he is gone.
The night of March 20th, Kandi had a dream where Jeremiah told her to give her life to God. So the next morning she went to church with her boyfriend and joined their church. In fact they had decided to get married too. That following Tuesday, I got a phone call around sunset saying Jerejo was in the hospital unconscious. My children and I went up to the hospital and was first stopped by Adrian. He explained to me what happen from what he knew.
See Adrian didn’t leave Jerejo with that female. He actually left him with the next door neighbor to go to a candlelight visual for a friend of his that was hit and killed by a car two days before. The neighbor was Adrian’s step-grandmother. That female took my nephew from her, beat him and then brought him back unconscious and needing help.
I knew, once I saw the police following her every move, that she was a suspect and something wasn’t right. Trust me, my family wanted their justice right there in that waiting room and they was asking for it. I wanted it just as much, but it wouldn’t do any good for us to be locked up right next to her. Kandi finally arrived and I can’t even explain the sound of her heart broking when she saw her son. I can’t share the condition he was in, it was a lot to take in. Even now, tears are my only expression.
In the end she took the deal of 25 to life. On March 18th, 2011 Adrian and that female was sentenced. She wouldn’t even look at us as she sat there crying like we wronged her. My sister told her she forgave her, but she will never forget. I showed them a picture of that my siblings and I took with Adrian, his mom and his sister when her was 2 years. I shared the story of how his mom and I used to talking about Kandi and Adrian growing up and what their children would look like. See Jeremiah wasn’t a summer fling baby, he was thought about before his parents even understood life themselves. Jerejo’s D.A, kept the picture to show when that female goes up for parole.
GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN
JEREMIAH JOSIAH MCRATH
Oct. 5, 2006 – Mar. 25, 2010
Auntie KOKO will ALWAYS luv you, JEREJO