Tre Henderson was taking care of his girlfriend’s 5-year-old son, JaShawn Bussell, on Sunday, April 22 of 2017. Henderson “knowingly acted in a manner which caused substantial risk to the child’s safety and failed to seek medical treatment” after the child suffered a head injury, according to the Davenport Police Department.
JaShawn’s mother, Jacqueline Rambert, called 911 the night of April 27, 2018. She said her son was choking and unresponsive in their apartment in Davenport, Iowa according to trial testimony.
JaShawn Bussell was rushed to a local hospital and then airlifted to University Hospitals in Iowa City. He died May 1, 2018, from complications due to blunt-force injuries to his head.
Rambert testified that Henderson told her he beat the boy with a belt after he urinated and soiled himself on April 20, 2018. Two days later, she was at work when Henderson brought Bussell to her job and claimed Ja’Shawn fell off the kitchen counter.
Over the next several days, Ja’Shawn was vomiting and barely eating, Rambert said.
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She admitted that she punched her son in his side, breaking his ribs, at one point because she was frustrated and nervous when he would not stop biting his lip.
Henderson testified that he never hit the boy or hit him with a belt. He also denied causing Bussell’s fatal injury and said he never saw Rambert hit the boy.
Henderson and Rambert are both from Chicago, Illinois and were living in a Davenport, Iowa apartment when Ja’Shawn was attacked.
Rambert pleaded guilty to two counts of child endangerment on March 24, 2020 and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. She must serve at least 20 years before she is eligible for parole. She was given credit for time already spent in the Scott County Jail.
Tre Henderson was sentenced April 8, 2020 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A Scott County, Iowa jury convicted him of first-degree murder, child endangerment-multiple acts, and child endangerment resulting in death.
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