‘A really good baby’: Did Raleigh toddler choke on waffles, or was it murder?
Marquise McCall was reading Valentine’s Day cards at Dollar Tree when her boyfriend called and said her 22-month-old son wasn’t breathing.
“He said, ‘You need to get here now,’” McCall testified Wednesday in Wake County Superior Court.
“Torrance wasn’t breathing,” he said. “He was choking.”
Through the FaceTime video call, McCall saw her boyfriend, Michael Buchanan, cradling her son, Torrance Adams, whose eyes were partly open and glossy, she testified.
McCall was the first witness in the trial for Buchanan, 26, who was charged with child abuse after medical officials discovered Torrance’s fractured skull. He was charged with murder after the toddler died.
In opening arguments, Assistant District Attorney Melanie Shekita said, as hospital officials tried to save Torrance, Buchanan maintained that the child choked on a waffle.
During those critical hours that Torrance was being treated for respiratory distress, his brain was bleeding and swelling from a yet-to-be discovered injury, Shekita told the jury.
Buchanan’s attorney, Brad Polk, asked the jury to keep an open mind.
Jurors will hear about Torrance choking on a waffle and hitting his head on a sink, Polk said. They will also hear from a medical examiner expert who has a different opinion about Torrance’s death than the prosecution’s expert.
Child abuse statistics
Across the United States, at least 1 in 7 children experienced child abuse, neglect or both, in the past year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 1,840 children died in 2019.
In 2017, the latest data available, about 25 children in North Carolina 4 years old and under died from homicide, according to a North Carolina Medical Examiners’ report.
Torrance Adams
McCall and Torrance’s father, William Adams, told The News & Observer that Torrance was a sweet baby who was shy with strangers but affectionate with his family. He liked Spider-Man, the “Baby Shark” song and rap and hip hop songs his father listened to, they said.
His first words were “Da Da,” McCall said, and “no.”
“No was his favorite,” McCall said. “He was a really good baby.”
COVID-19 protocols
On Wednesday, McCall, 31, wore a clear face shield as she sat in a makeshift witness stand.
The courtroom was rearranged for pandemic protocols. Witnesses testified from the corner of the jury box. The jury was spread out among the wooden benches in the courtroom typically occupied by family and spectators. Family members sat in the very back, while others watched the trial through video streamed in another courtroom. Everyone wore a mask.
McCall testified she met Buchanan when they were living in the Washington, D.C., area, and they dated about 10 months. McCall moved to a townhome in Raleigh at the end 2019 and Buchanan followed her on Feb. 2, 2019, 10 days before Torrance was taken to the hospital.
While Buchanan was in Raleigh, the couple had fought about Buchanan disciplining the children and broke up a, McCall said. She planned to drive Buchanan back to the D.C. area the day after Valentine’s, when she was expecting a paycheck.
While McCall was living in the D.C. area, her then 4-year-old son said Buchanan had hit him in the chest, McCall said.
She addressed it, she said, and told Buchanan not to hit her children.
The issue resurfaced when Buchanan hit McCall’s daughter with a belt about three times for not taking the dog out a day or two before Valentine’s Day 2019, McCall testified.
Later that day, he ripped the children’s video game out of the wall when one of them wasn’t getting ready fast enough, she said.
The couple fought about the incidents, McCall said. She objected to him hitting her children, she said, and Buchanan said she needed to discipline her kids more.
“If I did it, he wouldn’t have to,” McCall said he would say.
Valentine’s Day 2019
On Feb. 14, 2019, McCall left for a job interview around 12:30 p.m. and left waffles in the oven for the children.
Sometimes Torrance could get fussy if he knew she was leaving, she said.
After McCall’s job interview, she went to the Dollar Tree to pick up Valentine’s Day balloons and other gifts for the kids. While McCall was in the store, Buchanan called and said Torrance wasn’t breathing. McCall called 911 and told Buchanan to do the same. On the way home, McCall caught up to the ambulance.
“I started panicking because they hadn’t got there yet,” she said.
When she got to the townhouse, Torrance was lying on the floor as paramedics started to work on him.
They wouldn’t let her touch him, McCall said, so she lay down beside him.
Paramedics got Torrance breathing again, McCall said, and she rode in the ambulance with him to WakeMed.
At the hospital, the toddler was responding to touch, she said, but not light.
“They couldn’t figure out why his blood pressure was dropping,” McCall said.
Several hours later, they discovered a skull fracture and found marks on Torrance’s face and back that McCall said weren’t there when she left for the job interview.
McCall had to leave the hospital to talk to police. When she returned Torrance was no longer responding to touch.
A brain scan showed there was no activity that day and then the next.
Buchanan had driven McCall’s car to the hospital. He was arrested after his interview with police.
For more than two hours, Buchanan maintained Torrance didn’t hit his head and wasn’t struck by him, Shekita, the prosecutor, said.
Then he looked at the detective and said, “F it. He hit his head on the sink, bro,” Shekita said.
Testimony is scheduled to continue Thursday.
If you suspect that a child is being abused or died from maltreatment, state law requires you to report that information to the local county Department of Social Services. More information about recognizing child abuse as well as resources for parents who need help can be found at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services website.
This story was originally published April 15, 2021 at 8:18 AM.
