Philadelphia mother, boyfriend convicted of killing her 4-year-old son, dumping his body in a duffel bag
Dominique Bailey and Kevin Spencer were also convicted of conspiracy, abuse of a corpse, and related crimes.
A Philadelphia woman and her boyfriend were convicted Monday of third-degree murder in the death of her 4-year-old son, whose body was found inside a duffel bag.
Dominique Bailey and Kevin Spencer were also convicted of conspiracy, abuse of a corpse, false reporting of a crime, and related offenses, after a jury heard evidence that the couple had told relatives and police the boy had been fatally struck by a car in December 2023.
But investigators found no evidence to support that, prosecutors said. Instead, they said, Spencer beat Damari Carter to death, then dumped his body in a trash-strewn alleyway in West Philadelphia. Bailey helped to cover up the killing, and had allowed Spencer to abuse her son, prosecutors said.
Bailey and Carter came to Philadelphia in early 2023, according to authorities, and soon moved into Spencer’s Mantua apartment. At the couple’s preliminary hearing, a neighbor testified she had heard what sounded like a child being beaten and notified the city’s Department of Human Services on Dec. 7, 2023.
No one from the agency appears to have intervened, prosecutors said at the time.
Bailey wanted to get rid of her son so she could start a new family with Spencer, they said, and that evidence including videos from Spencer’s cell phone and audio recordings captured by a neighbor showed Spencer routinely abused Carter, who did not speak. And on Dec. 9, 2023, surveillance camera footage captured Spencer leaving the Reno Street apartment with a black duffel bag over his shoulder — the same bag in which the boy’s remains were later found, prosecutors said.
The couple was arrested in January 2024 and charged with the killing. That March, city workers found the duffel bag in the alleyway with the boy’s body inside.
Bailey and Spencer are scheduled to be sentenced in December.
Bailey’s attorney, Angelo Cameron, was not immediately available for comment. Spencer’s attorney, Michael McDermott, did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday morning.
