Child's body found near Berkeley Marina

A child's body was found today near the Berkeley Marina, not far from where police officers had been searching for Jashon Williams, a missing 17-month-old boy whose mother was found killed in nearby Aquatic Park, authorities said.

The body was found by two kayakers shortly before 11 a.m., said Berkeley police Lt. Andrew Greenwood. He said the body was floating about 50 to 100 feet from the shoreline on the south side of the marina.

"All I can tell you is the body is that of a child," Greenwood said. He said water flowed between Aquatic Park and the marina.

Firefighters retrieved the body from the water this afternoon. Berkeley homicide investigators and an Alameda County coroner's van were on the scene.

The coroner will be responsible for identifying the body and determining the cause of death, Greenwood said, adding that police were treating the discovery as a "found body" and had not classified the case as a homicide.

The discovery was made on a brisk Sunday morning in an area popular with joggers, dog-walkers and boat enthusiasts. The Cal Sailing Club was in the water nearby.

On Saturday, divers and search dogs had scoured Aquatic Park for signs of Jashon Williams, the 17-month-old son of Zoelina Williams, 23, of Oakland.

Zoelina Williams was found beaten and fatally shot about 4 a.m. Friday in the park, police said. A suspect in the slaying, Curtis Martin III, 38, of Oakland, remained in jail today.

Relatives of Williams said they had not seen Jashon since Halloween and that they believed the little boy had been with Martin, a convicted child-killer who has served time in connection with robbery, burglary and weapons charges.

Martin pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the 1994 fatal beating of 3-year-old Devin Brewer of Oakland, the son of his then-girlfriend.

Last year, Martin was arrested but not prosecuted in a domestic-violence case.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/15/BASG1AKSF0.DTL

Here is yet another example of somebody who should be in jail being free to commit more crimes.

Child molesters and Child killers should get one strike....and then one bullet. Is that too harsh?

Believed he had been with a convicted child killer??? OMG...why was this killer free to walk the streets?

A convicted child killer...beat a girfriends 3-year-old son to death, and only had to serve ELEVEN years in prison.
Shame on our judicial system that allows a criminal who had such a record of violence free to kill again.

Police are not ruling this boy's death a homicide. What? Are we supposed to believe that this 17-month-old child got to the Marina all by himself and then jumped in the water.
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I hate reading of cases likle this

Dis wrote:Child molesters and Child killers should get one strike....and then one bullet. Is that too harsh?

Amen, Dis.

How about execution by Firing Squad for all murderers, especially child predators? Lethal injection is far too easy for these heartless monsters.

Booklover wrote:How about execution by Firing Squad for all murderers, especially child predators? Lethal injection is far too easy for these heartless monsters.

You know you might be on to something there Book. If these perverts KNEW that they weren't going to be getting such a cake ride for committing these crimes, MAYBE, just MAYBE there wouldn't be so many of these cases. It really burns my ass that these sicko's end up having more rights than the victim or their families.