Woman gets life sentence for killing 12-year-old
Rose M. Boyd-Tolver of Reading, who was described at her trial as being mildly retarded, beat the child with a mop handle more than 80 times
Mary E. Young
Reading Eagle
Feb. 2--A 41-year-old Reading woman who beat, sat on and killed a 12-year-old child she outweighed by about 160 pounds was sentenced Thursday in Berks County Court to life in prison.
Rose M. Boyd-Tolver of the 700 block of McKnight Street, who was described during her trial as being mildly mentally retarded, was convicted in a November jury trial of firstdegree murder in the death of Amira Brown.
According to testimony, Boyd-Tolver struck the child at least 80 times with a mop handle in a downstairs kitchen in the home of the child's foster parent Sept 4, 2005. She then hit Brown again upstairs before sitting on the child and killing her, witnesses testified.
Boyd-Tolver weighed about 280 pounds, and Brown weighed about 120 pounds, according to testimony.
Boyd-Tolver was baby-sitting the child, who was under the care of Barbara Martin in Martin's home at 630 Summit Ave.
Brown's grandmother, Josephine Sharp of Easton, Northampton County, told Judge James M. Bucci that Brown enjoyed styling her dolls' hair and dreamed of becoming a beautician.
"Now we will never know what her aspirations and potential could have been," Sharp said. "I went to grief therapy for weeks to try to understand why anyone would beat a child to death and not even bat an eyelash.
"I experienced nightmares and visions of Amira lying in her coffin, which to this day still haunts me. I've cried many days and nights, especially during the holidays."
Perhaps spending the rest of her life in jail will convince Boyd-Tolver that she must forever live with the memory of the murder, Sharp said.
District Attorney Mark C. Baldwin gave Bucci a letter expressing similar sentiments from Brown's mother, Janeen Sharp of Philadelphia, who could not attend the sentencing.
Life in prison is an appropriate sentence because medical evidence showed Boyd-Tolver continued to beat Brown after the girl was unconscious, Baldwin said.
"You always wonder why," he said. "The pictures in this case were particularly haunting: Eighty separate blows to this child's body. The brutality, the number of blows show what this defendant did. She had no remorse.
"She will die in prison, but the memory of Amira will live on. I can't imagine what the family is going through. Hopefully, a life sentence for this defendant will be some comfort and close the wound."
Boyd-Tolver's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Craig S. Snyder, asked that no extra time be added to the life sentence for related offenses.
"The mitigating factor remains the mental state of my client," he said, referring to testimony that showed Boyd-Tolver is mentally ill and mildly retarded. When Bucci asked Boyd-Tolver if she had anything to say, she replied, "I apologize to the family." Bucci said Boyd-Tolver demonstrated a vicious propensity for cruelty. "This is a horrible crime, and I certainly take into consideration the pain and the longlasting emotional and mental anguish that her family, her grandmother, her mother, her friends and loved ones will suffer as a result of this. "I believe the sentence fits the crime."
Contact reporter Mary Young at 610-478-6292 or myoung @readingeagle.com.