An Augusta teen is spending his second week in jail on child cruelty charges for allegedly hitting his 11-year-old sister with a belt.
Stanley Jamar Lomax Jr., 17, was arrested last weekend for first-degree cruelty to children, and he remained there Sunday in the Charles B. Webster Detention Center under no bond.
Richmond County deputies were called to the family’s home along Thomas Lane Sept. 26 after Lomax Jr.’s father called to report him to authorities. The father told deputies that Lomax had been left in charge of his eight siblings while his mother was gone.
At first, siblings claimed Lomax Jr. had stomped on his 11-year-old sister’s head and punched her. Instead, video footage showed Lomax Jr. beating the girl with a belt as she used her hands as a shield, screaming for him to stop.
When questioned, Lomax Jr. claimed that his sister was being disobedient and so he “whooped her.” However Lomax Jr. claimed he did not “intentionally beat his sister,” but said the belt was hitting everywhere because the sister was moving around.
At the time of the initial call, deputies wrote in reports that they did not have enough evidence to arrest Lomax. Instead, they notified the Department of Family and Children Services who planned to respond later that day.
Lomax Jr.’s father told deputies that the same daughter has reported similar abuse by her brother five or six times in the past, but the father didn’t report it due to a lack of video evidence.
Lomax Jr. was arrested Oct. 5.
