Mystery surrounds death of 15-month-old NLV boy

Friday, Sept. 24, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.

A 21-year-old man who is charged with killing his girlfriend's 15-month-old son was arrested after he changed his account of what happened in the hours preceding the child's death, according to the police report that a judge ordered be released to the Sun this week.

Quin'Tavion Wells died as a result of a blow to his head that caused a fractured skull, the medical examiner determined.

After initially telling police that nothing had happened to Quin'Tavion while he was alone with him, Wayne "Psych" Jackson eventually said that he had been swinging the boy around by his hands, in circles, when the baby slipped out of his hands and "flew into a tree/bush and curb, striking his head" on Aug. 20, according to the police report.

But Jackson's girlfriend, Candace Wells, told police that couldn't have happened because Jackson hadn't been outside alone with the child at the time Jackson said the injury had occurred. Jackson's final version of what had happened also didn't jibe with the statements given to police by Wells' friends and neighbors, who had been around the couple and the baby on the day of the death and the night that preceded it.

Wells also told police that Jackson had beaten her in the past and had threatened to kill her and Quin'Tavion. She said she had never seen Jackson strike the baby but "was very afraid of him due to the abuse she received from him as well as his controlling personality."

She said she had also been told that while she was making funeral arrangements for her son, Jackson had been seen cleaning his sneakers in the kitchen sink of her apartment in the 3100 block of Plumwood, near Cheyenne Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard North.

Jackson had "scrubbed (cleaned) the entire sneaker, to include the soles," the police report notes. "Candace thought this was strange and wanted us (police) to collect the sneakers in case Wayne had stomped her baby."

Police also collected strands of black hair from the end of a 26-inch wooden pole at the apartment, but tests found no traces of blood on the pole.

Neither police nor prosecutors have said yet exactly how the baby's skull was fractured.

Jackson is charged with murder by child abuse.

The report also notes that Wells' grandmother has custody of Wells' 3-year-old daughter as a result of an intervention by Child Protective Services personnel.