A man arrested last year in South Fulton on child molestation charges, among others, has now been accused of killing his son more than 20 years ago, authorities announced this week.
Christopher Lavelle Houston Sr., 40, was originally a person of interest in the death of his 3-year-old son in 2004, according to an arrest warrant obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Despite the boy’s death being labeled a homicide, there was not enough evidence to bring charges against a suspect. The child’s mother was also considered a person of interest at the time, Atlanta police said in the warrant.
Houston was arrested in May 2023 on unrelated charges out of South Fulton, and court records show that he has been indicted on counts of rape, aggravated child molestation and child molestation in that case. South Fulton police have not responded to requests for more details about that incident.
According to the APD warrant charging Houston with murder, his son died from blunt force trauma to the head. Christopher Houston Jr. was beaten and also suffered a displaced femur and “numerous contusions on his head, back and arms,” the warrant said.
Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office
After the boy’s death, police interviewed both Houston and the child’s mother, the warrant said. Both told investigators that Chris Jr. was playing outside and then came into their apartment to lie down. The parents each said when they checked on him about two hours later, he was unresponsive, according to the warrant.
After Houston was booked into the Fulton jail in 2023, Atlanta police said they learned that some of his relatives might have new information about the now-cold case, though no one was willing to go on the record at the time.
Earlier this month, about a year after Atlanta police reestablished contact with Chris Jr.’s maternal family, one of the victim’s sisters told investigators that Houston had admitted to the killing, the warrant said. The girl, who was not born when Chris Jr. was killed and is still a minor, lived with Houston from 2021-22. During that time, she asked Houston about her brother’s death and he replied, “I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t mean to kill him,” according to the warrant.
After that breakthrough, investigators spoke to Chris Jr.’s mother. She told police that one of the victim’s other sisters, who was 2 when Chris Jr. was killed, had recalled the incident at a later date and spoken about it to one of her schoolteachers, the warrant said. The sibling told the teacher that she remembered Chris Jr. spilling a white powder, which enraged Houston, according to the warrant. Houston then hit Chris Jr. in the head multiple times in the bedroom of their apartment, the sister told her teacher.
A few days later, investigators spoke to another of Chris Jr.’s siblings who corroborated that story, the warrant said. That sibling had heard the story from someone who witnessed the incident, though the witness has not been interviewed by police, according to the warrant.
After those interviews, Atlanta police secured warrants against Houston, charging him with murder and first-degree cruelty to children.
Since 2004, Houston has been arrested several times and convicted of multiple lesser crimes, court records show. He was diverted to a pretrial intervention program in 2004 when he was accused of breaking into a car and theft. In 2016, he was arrested on multiple traffic-related charges, including driving with a suspended license, and pleaded guilty. He also pleaded guilty to another theft charge for a crime committed in 2020 and spent six months in jail, but was later sentenced to time served.
Houston has remained in jail without bond since his arrest more than a year ago.
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