'Unthinkable Acts:' South Bay Pair Convicted Of Torturing, Murdering 7-Year-Old

LOS ANGELES, CA — A woman and her former live-in boyfriend were convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder and torture in the death of her 7-year-old daughter nearly four years ago.

Jurors deliberated about a day before finding Helen Brockman, 34, and Malachi Xavier Whalen, 33, guilty in connection with the Sept. 9, 2021, death of her daughter, identified by authorities as A'Miya D.

The jury found true the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture.

Brockman was also convicted of child abuse resulting in death, while Whalen was found guilty of assault on a child causing death.

The two — who are facing life in prison without the possibility of parole — are due back at the Airport Courthouse Sept. 12. A sentencing date is expected to be set then.

In her closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Kelly Kraetsch called the crimes "unthinkable acts" that happened while the girl was briefly living with her mother and her mother's then-boyfriend in a 370-square-foot apartment in Hawthorne.

The prosecutor said documentation of the torture began with a cell phone recording by Whalen six days before the murder that inadvertently showed extensive bruising to one side of the girl's face. Brockman can be heard asking the girl why she doesn't listen and calling her "rebellious," and Whalen can be heard asking why she doesn't listen to her mother.

The prosecutor alleged that the two confined her with her ankles in handcuffs that are not even used by law enforcement and kept her in the bathtub.

"Both defendants intended to torture and kill A'Miya because she was rebellious, because she wouldn't listen," the prosecutor told jurors.

"There was time to save her," Kraetsch said. "If they had called 911, they could have saved her ... They chose to let her die."

The prosecutor said the two instead dragged the girl into the kitchen and left her for dead behind a large cardboard TV box in the kitchen, after Sriracha hot sauce was forced down the girl's throat in the bathroom, causing her to vomit her stomach contents and then breathe them back in.

Whalen had called the girl's father and told him to come straight from work, and he eventually, unknowingly, wound up being "inches way" from his daughter while she was dead behind a large television box in the kitchen and was being instructed to touch certain items in the residence, the deputy district attorney said.

The prosecutor said the two subsequently drove the girl to the hospital, where she was officially pronounced dead after hospital staff "did everything they possibly could to save her."

Deputy District Attorney David Zygielbaum told jurors in his rebuttal argument that a deputy medical examiner who performed an autopsy on the girl found 58 areas of injury.

He told the panel that the couple needed "someone to take the fall for it" and tried to frame the girl's father for her death, saying that Brockman subsequently blamed Whalen in a discussion with an undercover jailhouse operative following her arrest.

Brockman's attorney, Tonya Deetz, countered, "She didn't torture her daughter. She didn't abuse her daughter. It was Mr. Whalen who did that."

She told jurors that the girl was Brockman's "little angel" and said there was "no question that she loved A'Miya," contending that "Ms. Brockman was abused, controlled and isolated."

"... There is evidence inconsistent with guilt," she said of the case against Brockman. "I don't think these facts can be reconciled with guilt."

She said "it is 100% clear" that Whalen's DNA was found on the bottle of Sriracha hot sauce and that the prosecution had proven who killed the girl.

Of the prosecution's contention that the girl could have been saved if authorities had been notified earlier about what happened to her, she said, "Prove it."

Whalen's attorney, Gregory McCambridge, called the girl's death "a horrible, senseless tragedy."

He described his client as a junior college student at the time who deals with ADHD and asked for help with his homework, saying that he was "not a criminal mastermind" but was being portrayed to be "like Lex Luthor and Hannibal Lecter."

"... It's pretty clear Mr. Whalen wasn't around that much," he said. "This started when he was gone most of the time."

Whalen's attorney said there was no evidence that his client was abusive to children, arguing that Brockman provided "very specific descriptions of beating A'Miya" while speaking to the undercover jail operative after her arrest. He said there was no evidence that Whalen had inflicted physical violence on his girlfriend.

McCambridge argued that his client could have been found guilty of lesser crimes with which he had not been charged, saying he had been "overcharged."

"What he's not guilty of is intending to murder or torture A'Miya. The evidence doesn't support that," Whalen's attorney argued.

In his final argument for the prosecution, Zygielbaum countered that the only benefit of the child for the couple was for tax purposes and that "each injury was a choice, each injury was designed to cause pain and suffering."

The two were arrested the day after the girl's death and have remained behind bars since then.

The victim's paternal great-grandfather, Vernon Harrison, noted that the girl was his first great-grandchild.

"It's been a long process ... We're glad it's over and that justice has prevailed," he said. "This has been our life for almost four years."

By Terri Vermeulen Keith, City News Service