DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A man accused of killing his 5-year-old son appeared in court Friday.
Detectives went over what was found in a house the day, police say, Montrais Boyd killed his son Montrais Jr. and tried to bury him in the backyard.
Police said the boy was staying with his grandmother in DeKalb County when Boyd and the child's mother unexpectedly showed up from California last week.
At one point, the mother and grandmother left the father at home with his son and three other children.
Police said that's when the father used a knife to kill the child. Boyd has been charged with malice murder.
Police dashcam video shows Boyd being arrested after a high-speed chase in Arizona a year ago, with that same son in the back seat of his car.
Family members say Boyd is a diagnosed schizophrenic and they believe the state of Arizona failed them by letting him out of jail on bond following the incident.
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“They let him go. I feel like he was crying for help and he didn’t get the help that he needed,” said the suspect’s aunt, Tomicka Brown.
She said if Boyd had received proper mental health treatment or was at least tracked with an ankle monitor after his release, this wouldn’t have happened.
Brown said she had a chance to speak to Boyd in jail this week. She said he is remorseful.
“He still hears God talking to him. He’s very emotional. He’s sad. He’s hurting,” she said.
Brown said the family now worries about the three surviving children who were home during the attack, especially the oldest, a 10-year-old who had to protect his brothers.
“He saw him (Boyd) go to the kitchen and get a knife and he went upstairs and put him and his brothers in the room and barricaded the door with the dresser,” she said.
Brown said family members are fighting for Montrais Jr. and working to help the victim’s grandmother get away from the home and constant reminders of what happened there.
“She can’t live like that. Those kids can’t like that,” she said.