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FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARADVERTISER.COM
Maryann Rooney holds a photo of her 4-year-old grandson, Zion McKeown, at her Waipio home. Zion's father, Kyle McKeown, and his girlfriend, Grace Lee-Nakamoto, have been charged with murdering the boy.
Kyle McKeown, left, and Grace Lee-Nakamoto
Four-year-old Zion McKeown, who died of alleged child abuse injuries, had injuries consistent with hitting a “concrete wall at approximately 65 mph” and likely had been “stomped on” before he was brought to a Maui hospital Tuesday, according to court documents released today.
Emergency staff were able to revive the boy, but he died the next day of his injuries, the court documents said.
The boy’s 32-year-old father Kyle McKeown and his father’s 27-year-old girlfriend Grace Lee-Nakamoto were charged Thursday with second-degree murder in connection with the death. They were being held at Maui Community Correctional Center in lieu of $500,000 bail and were scheduled to appear in Maui Circuit Court on Tuesday.
Court documents said McKeown and Lee-Nakamoto showed up at the hospital about 10:55 p.m. Tuesday with the boy, who was already unresponsive and gray in color — “meaning he was dead.” A surgeon who worked on the boy told authorities that McKeown had trauma consistent with “someone who hit a concrete wall at approximately 65 mph.”
An autopsy found the boy died from blunt force trauma to his lower abdomen and that the injuries most likely came “from someone stomping on him while he was lying on the ground,” the documents said.
