NLV man may have kept record of beatings

Karen Zekan

Tuesday, Dec. 23, 1997 | 10:54 a.m.

A 26-year-old North Las Vegas man charged with the murder of his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter allegedly kept journals detailing how he beat other women's children.

North Las Vegas Police recently seized volumes of paperwork from Emery Slayden's home that could add a damning dimension to case building against him for the Dec. 14 murder of Yazmine Doram. Authorities said the toddler suffered head injuries consistent with shaken-baby syndrome.

Police were tipped off to Slayden's journals by a woman claiming to have read the horrific entries during a stormy one-year relationship with the man that ended in March.

"The woman said she decided to come forward after watching news coverage of Yazmine's death," said Sgt. Michael Rose. "The woman told investigators that Slayden kept journals ... (and) some entries described 'discipline sessions' where Slayden had been punishing (other women's) children for various reasons."

Police said the woman described several instances in which her own 4-year-old child had been physically disciplined by Slayden for not completing miscellaneous math and spelling problems he assigned to her.

"She described how Slayden would hold the child up against the wall and shake her violently, then throw her repeatedly on the bed," Rose said.

Investigators today were still processing the many written items seized with a search warrant which included entries about relationships with other women, some of whom had young children.

"It's now 2:30 p.m. and I'm still disciplining (name withheld). I hope he sees the light before I make him see the dark," Slayden allegedly wrote in one journal entry. Another read: "It started off with (name withheld), who had a series of spankings for two hours, due to the fact..."

Slayden had dialed 911 for help when Yazmine stopped breathing at her home in the 1900 block of Carver Avenue near Lake Mead Boulevard. She died shortly after arriving at University Medical Center.

Sandy Doram, 20, initially told police that she did not know why her child died and that the toddler had not been eating well. When confronted with autopsy findings, the mother told authorities that Slayden had been disciplining the baby for several weeks by holding her up against the wall and shaking her.

The toddler's autopsy also concluded that the child had a broken leg suffered about 10 to 14 days before her fatal head injury.