Sydnor found guilty of manslaughter in death of 5-year-old son


South Boston News

Tonja Lashay Sydnor, the 33-year-old mother whose young son died in a brutal beating on Memorial Day two years ago, was found guilty Friday of voluntary manslaughter as part of a plea agreement that leaves her punishment to be determined at a later date.

Sydnor was originally charged with second degree murder in the killing of five-year-old Christian Sydnor on May 27, 2019 at her Old Cluster Springs Road home. Her boyfriend at the time, Kory Lennon, pleaded guilty last month to felony homicide and felony child abuse in the boy’s death.

With the agreement of the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, Circuit Judge Kimberley S. White rendered a verdict of guilty on the charge of voluntary manslaughter. Sydnor entered an Alford plea to the crime, which is not a direct admission of guilt but rather an acknowledgement that the prosecution has sufficient evidence to prove the charge.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Tracy Quackenbush Martin said the amended charge against Sydnor was appropriate, given what authorities know about her actions and state of mind on the day that Christian died.

“The Commonwealth was convinced that she failed to protect her child, but that she was not operating with any malice,” said Martin.

Under Virginia law, manslaughter is defined as the unlawful killing of another person without malice, which distinguishes it from the act from murder. It is commonly understood as a “crime of passion.” A Class 5 felony, it carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $2,500 fine, while giving a judge the leeway to extend leniency where appropriate.

Sydnor also entered an Alford plea to a second charge of felony child abuse, while a third count, of inflicting cruelty and intentional injury to the child, was dismissed in court as duplicative.

A rising kindergarten student at South Boston Elementary School, Christian died of multiple blunt force trauma wounds — to his head, torso and extremities, with “acute and chronic” inflammation to the lungs also contributing to his death. His injuries were inflicted in what the medical examiner described as “a setting of forced exercise,” a reference to the punishing exercises that Lennon, who had been staying at Tonja Syndor’s home that holiday weekend, put the child through prior to his death.

Both defendants in the killing, Sydnor and Lennon, will be sentenced at a later time in separate sentencing hearings. Lennon, a Nathalie resident, faces up to 40 years in prison for his role in the boy’s death.

Five-year-old Christian Sydnor had been living with his mother Tonja at their home on Old Cluster Springs Road when she had Lennon, her boyfriend, over for the weekend. The evidence established that Lennon administered a number of beatings to discipline the child, the last coming on the Memorial Day Monday that was Christian’s last day alive.

Prior to the judge rendering the verdict, Martin presented the case against Sydnor, based on evidence gathered by police, Sydnor’s statements to authorities, and officer testimony. As she offered her Alford pleas to the court, Sydnor spoke quietly with her defense lawyer, Jason Anthony of Richmond, at her side. Martin outlined the events leading up to the boy’s death and what Sydnor had to say about what happened that day.

Interviewed in jail, Tonja Sydnor told police that she trusted Lennon and she wished she had not. When asked to describe what happened in her own words, Sydnor said that Christian had been misbehaving “a lot” and she thought Lennon, as a “man figure,” would help with discipline of the child. On the day of Christian’s death, Sydnor said her son had been sleeping while she had been outside cleaning a truck.

She further stated that when she came inside, Lennon told her he had “whooped” Christian because he had urinated on himself. Lennon was disciplining the child at the time by requiring him to do exercises that Sydnor described as “sit-and-stand,” and a “squat” with his hands out. In other statements, she described Lennon making the child do pushups or “wall-squats.”

When she saw Lennon disciplining Christian with exercise, Sydnor told police, Lennon had a belt in his hand and was threatening to beat him if he did not submit.
Sydnor stated she saw her son’s body then and said, “He was fine.”

She said did not participate in the discipline and was not at home as Lennon punished her son; rather, she was “in and out” cleaning the home, carting off trash and doing other errands. She explained that she did not think to intervene because Lennon had disciplined Christian with exercise the day before, and everything had been fine.

Sydnor told authorities that she saw her son an hour before leaving to take trash to the dump. Christian had just taken a bath, she said, and she saw his entire naked body, noticing no injuries. She also reported that Christian was not crying or visibly upset, and that he was not complaining of any pain.

Sydnor left for the dump around 7:00 p.m. At approximately 7:10 p.m., as she was arriving at the dump, Lennon called her and asked if Christian slept with his eyes open. She told police that she answered, yes, that he did sometimes sleep with his eyes open. When she returned home a short while later she found the child unresponsive and saw bruises on his body and face.

The couple rushed Christian into town and met police at a Riverdale car wash, with EMT personnel summoned to transport Christian to the hospital ER. He was declared dead at Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital that day.

When asked whether she confronted or accused Lennon of hurting Christian, Sydnor said she simply asked him what had happened. She told Lennon to call 911, and he did so, stating that he had “whooped” Christian and that he was not breathing.

Sydnor said she typically had disciplined Christian by sending to his room or sometimes “whooping” him. She said she had not “whooped” him at all on the weekend or day prior to his death. She said only Lennon had disciplined him over that holiday weekend — specifically on Sunday and Monday — but said she did not believe Lennon had used a belt except on Monday, the day of the child’s death.

The autopsy report indicted that Christian had numerous contusions on his head, cheek and beneath his eyes. He had contusions and abrasions over his entire body, on his neck, chest, abdomen, back, buttocks, shoulder, arm, fingers, hips and the backs of his thighs — 51 wounds in all, according to the narrative presented in court by Martin, lead prosecutor for the Commonwealth.

Many wounds were linear, consistent with the lashings of a leather belt, one of which was found draped over the child’s bed by Sheriff’s Office investigators at the Sydnor home. Some wounds were “looped,” consistent with the doubled-up edge of a belt; and many were U-shaped, consistent with the shape of the buckle on one of the belts retrieved by police.

Investigators also found a railing on the side of Christian’s bed had been cracked in the middle. One belt was found draped over the bed railing; and another belt was found in Sydnor’s bedroom among Lennon’s belongings. Smears of apparent blood were found on the child’s bedroom walls.

In one of her jailhouse interviews, Sydnor told police of Lennon, “I trusted him and I don’t understand why.” She said Christian was “her world” and meant everything to her. She said she did not think Lennon would seriously hurt her child.

Ultimately, she acknowledged that she did not protect her son.

In her early statements to police, Sydnor offered contradictory statements on several key points — representing that she herself had used a belt on the child that weekend, and that Christian’s injuries on the day of his death had been caused by falling off his bicycle. Sydnor later told authorities that Lennon had asked her to keep quiet about the fact he had beaten the child.

The medical examiner took microscopic tissue samples of Christian’s injuries and concluded that all injuries were less than 48 hours old at the time of his death. Although the examination revealed his injuries were at different stages of healing, the examiner could not testify to a reasonable degree of professional likelihood that injuries had been inflicted on more than one occasion within that 48-hour period, Martin told the court. The microscopic examination suggested some of the child’s injuries where at least four hours old.

A sentencing hearing for Tonja Sydnor is slated for July 1, 2021 in Halifax County Circuit Court. The separate sentencing hearing for Kory Lennon is currently set for May 10.

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