A Virginia mother was indicted earlier this month for murder after police made a grisly discovery in her car trunk. Tonya Slaton, 44, was pulled over by police for expired tags on her vehicle in June 2015. When the officer began to impound her car, he noticed a strong smell of rotting flesh coming from the trunk. Inside, he found a heavily sealed trash bag covered by clothing. When he asked Slaton what was in the bag she responded it was just clothes. But when the bag was opened the decaying remains of Quincy Jamar Davis were discovered.
Davis was just 14 or 15 at the time of his death, according to the medical examiner, who could not yet determine a cause of death. The teen was a seventh grader at Virginia Beach Middle School and had suffered from years of abuse at the hands of his mother. Slaton was charged in 1997 for misdemeanor assault and battery when Davis was just 6 years old. She did not receive jail time but was released on the condition of good behavior for six months.
In 2002, she was charged with domestic assault and battery but court documents did not have details about the case against her at the time. Her violent behavior continued and in 2008 she fired shots into her then boyfriend’s home because he tried to break up with her. She left his home went to her car and opened fire on the house yelling “neither one of them were going to leave alive.” The boyfriend was able to escape by climbing out of a window and she was charged with shooting into an occupied building and attempted maiming. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison but served only about four years of her sentence.
Slaton has now been charged with second degree murder in the case of her son’s death in addition to concealment of a dead body. The Virginia Beach Department of Human Services did not make a comment over investigations into Slaton over her treatment of her son.
