A 23-year-old man who acknowledged having “extreme anger issues” admitted he dropped his 7-month-old son while “playing catch” with him three days before the child died.
Kameron Gammage and the child’s 18-year-old mother, Leyla Pierson, are now in the Ector County Jail, having been arrested on suspicion of injury to a child.
Odessa Police received a 911 call about a baby who wasn’t breathing at 12:52 p.m. Tuesday from the Brady Station Apartments in the 4200 block of East 52nd Street. When they arrived, they found the baby, who would have turned 8-months-old on July 23, deceased with heavy bruising and swelling to the left side of his face and head and smaller bruises along the top of his cranium.
An Odessa Police Department report details that Pierson told officers she fed her son, Logan, around 5 a.m. Tuesday and woke up around noon to find him not breathing. She said she went to Gammage to wake Gammage up, but he took several minutes to get up, seemed uncaring and asked her what she wanted him to do.
After telling him to call 911, Gammage became apologetic and told her he hoped she wasn’t mad at him, Pierson told authorities.
Pierson told police Gammage has extreme anger issues and had recently strangled several dogs to death, according to the report.
Gammage admitted to having problems with extreme anger and said the baby had been crying a lot and causing him additional stress, according to the report. He also admitted to strangling two dogs recently and disposing of their bodies to avoid getting into trouble.
In Gammage’s arrest affidavit, police wrote Gammage “remained unemotional and seemed to lack care about the incident throughout contact.”
Initially, Gammage told authorities his son had hit his head on a hard portion of the interior of his crib, according to the report.
Eventually, however, Gammage told police he and Pierson smoked marijuana on Saturday and while Pierson was sleeping, Logan began to cry so he decided to toss him into the air to get him to stop crying.
“Kameron claimed he ‘accidentally’ dropped the infant after the fourth toss, which caused the infant to land on his left side,” the report stated. “Kameron reported the infant hit the floor ‘hard’ when he landed.”
Gammage said he didn’t tell Pierson what had happened because he was afraid of getting into trouble.
“Kameron reported the infant began acting unusual over the next couple of days, and when he saw the infant deceased this morning, his initial thought was something like he killed his kid,” the report stated.
Pierson told authorities that when she asked Gammage about the baby’s injuries, he told her Logan had “probably hit his head on a hard part of the crib,” the report stated. She assumed his fussiness over the next few days was due to teething.
According to the report, officers found dog feces on the floor and an otherwise disheveled apartment. Both Gammage and Pierson admitted to trying to clean up the mess prior to police arriving.
The pair remain in the Ector County jail. Gammage is being held on a $350,000 bond and Person on a $5,000.
Online jail records show Gammage is also being held on a sexual assault of a child charge out of Andrews County.
According to the Andrews Police Department, they began investigating Gammage in August 2021 for offenses that were alleged to have occurred in 2019 and 2020 when the alleged victim was 15 years of age. He was indicted on May 19.
In an interview Wednesday, Gammage’s cousin, Brittany Pruitt, 27, of Andrews said Gammage is facing a sexual assault count because he became involved with Pierson while she was a minor.
Pruitt described Gammage as an outgoing, funny man who loved his son. Up until he lost his job 4-6 weeks ago, he worked hard to provide everything he could for him, she said.
“He’s a very trustworthy person and I’m in complete shock because he took care of my kids,” the mother of three said.
The relationship between Gammage and Pierson has always been a rocky one, in part because of Pierson’s age, Pruitt said. Gammage moved to Odessa about six months ago and was living with his sister until four months ago when he reunited with Pierson, she said.
“They decided they wanted to work things out and be a family,” Pruitt said.
The three of them would often come visit her in Andrews and because she knew they were struggling financially, Pruitt said she often would send them home with diapers, wipes and a can or two of formula. Her cousin’s siblings and mother live outside the Permian Basin, she said.
“All he cared about was working and making sure Logan had everything he needed,” Pruitt sobbed. “He’d go without eating so Logan would have food.”
While her cousin did have anger issues, Pruitt said she doesn’t believe Gammage would have hurt the baby intentionally.
“He loved taking pictures of him, he loved him so much,” Pruitt cried. “I do believe it was an accidental death…We’re just all in shock. We hope Logan gets the justice he deserves, but Kameron is not the way he’s being portrayed.”
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Media Specialist Paul Zimmerman via email said his department is investigating alongside law enforcement. There was no prior CPS history with the family and Logan had no siblings.
Both Gammage and Pierson have Facebook pages and Instagram accounts and they each list themselves as being “single.” Pierson’s last Facebook post, dated May 11 is a meme showing three options – single, taken or alcohol makes me happy, with the last one selected. Many of her posts are memes about troubled relationships, including one that says “The scars you can’t see are the hardest to heal.” Her profile picture and her cover photos show Logan.
On April 25, she posted two pictures of Logan. Her error-filled post reads: “I love my little mans. Your growing so much, I don’t ever want you to grow up. It’s crazy how fast how five months can go by.” By 1 p.m. Wednesday, more than 100 strangers had commented on the post, the vast majority attacking her about Logan’s death.
Gammage has multiple Facebook pages, like his Instagram photos, they contain mostly selfie pictures.
Want to help?
Relatives of Logan Pierson have set up a fundraiser to assist in his burial. Visit: gofund.me/934aaa49
