Uncle Sentenced to 25 Years for Stomping His 15-year-Old Nephew to Death

By Andrew Michaels - October 11, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects | Victims |

Hezekiah Pettiford was a happy and healthy 15-year-old boy when he went to live with his uncle, Dion Ball, in October 2019. Over the next 11 months, a Baltimore City prosecutor said on Oct. 10, Hezekiah’s behavior and health plummeted until he was stomped to death on Jan. 26, 2021.

According to the prosecution, Ball, 46, was behind Hezekiah’s death and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree child abuse resulting in death, first and second-degree assault, neglect of a minor and two counts of second-degree child abuse.

On Tuesday, Ball was sentenced to life, suspending all but 25 years, for first-degree murder and a concurrent 25 years and five years of supervised probation for first-degree child abuse before Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Yolanda A. Tanner. Under the terms of his plea, the defendant is also required to complete a psychiatric evaluation, anger management and drug and alcohol screening and can have no unsupervised contact with children under 18 years old.

Prior to moving in with the defendant, the prosecutor explained, Hezekiah was a high-functioning autistic child weighing 95 pounds. One of Hezekiah’s teachers said in a victim impact statement that the boy loved math, had an extensive vocabulary and enjoyed watching game shows like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. His favorite movie was Home Alone and he loved eating macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets.

The prosecutor displayed photos of Hezekiah before and during his stay with Ball. While the first photo showed Hezekiah smiling and healthy, the following photos showed an apparently unhappy and malnourished child.

“This was a beautiful young man whose life was cut short,” the prosecutor said. “…Ultimately, he was stomped to death and left for seven hours” at their home on the 800 block of McAleer Court.

Ball was accused of stomping on Hezekiah’s head and picking up the child’s body and throwing him to the ground on the morning of Jan. 26, 2021. The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) wasn’t called until around 3 p.m. later that day.

An autopsy found Hezekiah’s cause of death to be from blunt force trauma, but also showed significant signs of malnourishment, the prosecutor said. Hezekiah weighed 77 pounds.

Later in the proceeding, Ball and his defense counsel, David Williams, said “no one else stepped up” to take care of Hezekiah after his grandmother, who was his guardian, passed away.

“I don’t claim to be the best parent in the world, but I’m a parent,” Ball said to Judge Tanner. “This boy, in 2019, needed somebody. Where were y’all at?”

The defendant added that he “didn’t take this young man away from the world” and that Hezekiah was “his heart.”

Prior to her sentence, Judge Tanner said the prosecution’s before and after photos made it clear that Hezekiah was unhappy and unhealthy.

Ball’s wife, 33-year-old Stefanie Colon, faced similar charges in connection to the incident and was found guilty of first-degree child abuse resulting in severe physical injury and two counts of neglecting a minor in March. She is currently serving a four-year sentence.