Man pleads not guilty in murder of 5-year-old boy found dumped in Panorama City
A man facing charges for allegedly killing a 5-year-old boy whose body was found in Panorama City pleaded not guilty in a Van Nuys courtroom on Monday. Meanwhile, disturbing new video shows a man carrying something wrapped in a blanket the night of the crime.
Bail for 20-year-old Brycson Malik Gaddis -- the ex-boyfriend of Elyjiah Hearn's mother -- is set at $2 million for charges of murder and assault on a child causing death . He's accused of killing the boy in July and disposing of his body in a dumpster. Elyjiah had suffered massive injuries.
Gaddis appeared in court on Monday, and for the first time, we're seeing surveillance video from the night the boy's body was left in the parking lot.
New surveillance video obtained by Eyewitness News shows a man and a woman on Titus Street in Panorama City the night the child was killed, the same street where he was found the next day.
One person is seen holding something -- or someone -- wrapped in a blanket.
"You can see a head and small feet dangling," said Yousef Rabadi, the co-owner of E &J Market and Liquor.
Rabadi's business backs up to Titus Street. He says a security guard in the area sent him the disturbing video.
A Los Angeles police search warrant of Gaddis' apartment describes similar footage they've reviewed.
The search warrant says "the victim was wrapped in a multi-colored blanket, in which he was later found deceased. Bryscon was accompanied by Kemia Hearn," the boy's mother.
The warrant also says initial indications of blood were found on the bathroom sink, drain, backsplash and inside a tote bag on the bed found in the apartment.
"Some of my customers, they are the neighbors of the child, and they know that that baby was neglected and abused," Rabadi said. "So it had been going on for a long time, you know? And nobody... people saw something and didn't say anything. So that's why I took the liberty of, like, posting that video."
While Gaddis is in jail on a $2 million bail, Kemia was questioned by police, but ultimately released.
Things got heated outside of the Van Nuys courthouse on Monday. After the hearing, Elyjiah's grandfather pulled out a gun in the parking lot.
Eyewitness News Reporter Sophie Flay spoke to him on the phone after that moment.
He said his daughter, Elyjiah's mother, was being threatened. He said he didn't point the gun at anyone, but used the presence of the gun as a way to tell the people threatening his daughter to get away.
