Grandmother gets 25 years after grandson, 3, died from cruel punishment called ‘The Wrap’ – where he suffocated after being tied up in SIX blankets
- Michael McMullen was wrapped in blankets after refusing to have a nap
- Grandmother Gale Watkins, 57, pinned boy’s arms to his side and rolled him in a king-sized blanket, wrapped it over his head and tied a knot
- She checked on him once to tell him to stop crying so she could sleep
- She tried to untie it then gave up after breaking a nail, the court heard
- Jury took 30 minutes to find Watkins guilty of aggravated manslaughter
- Family friend Donella Trainor, 46, and stepfather Douglas Garrigus, 21, were also in the house. They have been jailed for aggravated manslaughter
A grandmother has been jailed for 25 years over the death of her three-year-old grandson who was suffocated to death using six blankets in a twisted punishment called The Wrap.
Michael McMullen was ‘tied like a mummy’ with his arms pinned to his side and loose ends of fabric wrapped over his head for four hours – while he was eating a peanut butter sandwich – after displaying ‘behavioral issues’.
Michael McMullen who was wrapped in six blankets and left for four hours until he died of suffocation and overheating. The three-year-old boy cried and hyperventilated. At one point his grandmother tried to untie him but gave up after breaking a nail.
His grandmother Gale Watkins, 57, told the court in Fort Myers, Florida, she checked on the boy once, pleading with him to stop crying so she could get 20 minutes’ rest.
Gale Watkins, 57, has been jailed for 25 years for the death of her grandson Michael McMullen (left) who was wrapped in six blankets and left for four hours until he died of suffocation and overheating
At one point she tried to untie the knots but she gave up after breaking a nail.
Her friend then tightened the loose ends and put more pillows around him.
Michael was found unconscious hours later, face down and ‘soaking wet’ with sweat. He died of suffocation, overheating and choking on the sandwich.
On Monday, Watkins became the third and final defendant to be convicted of aggravated manslaughter in the case, handing her a 25-year sentence with five years’ probation.
The jury took just 30 minutes to pass their verdict.
Family friend Donella Trainor, 46, was jailed for 20 years and the boy’s stepfather, Douglas Garrigus, 22, for 10 years for the same charge.
‘The loss of Michael is the greatest I’ve ever felt,’ Watkins told the court, according to Naples News.
‘No one feels more remorse than I do.’
Her daughter, Michael’s mother, Samantha McMullen said she was distraught at losing both her son and her mother.
‘My mom couldn’t even hurt a fly let alone a child or a person,’ McMullen said.
Trainor, a friend of the boy’s grandmother, told investigators she had disciplined her own grandchildren that way, using a technique all three adults knew as ‘the wrap,’ Lieutenant Larry King said.
King said the group pinned the boy’s arms to his side and rolled him in a king-sized blanket.
‘There were six layers of cloth over this child. The loose ends would be folded over his head and feet and tied into a knot, all in an effort to prevent the child from moving,’ King said.
‘You could use a mummy reference.’
The boy, Michael Lee McMullen, screamed and pleaded to be released as he was wrapped and put in his crib for a nap in October 2013, the sheriff’s report said.
The boy’s grandmother, and his stepfather, Garrigus, checked on him at different times as he cried and struggled, the report said.
At one point, Garrigus said he could hear the boy crying and hyperventilating, the sheriff’s office said.
Trainor returned, found the knot loose and retied it, then put pillows around the child, the report said.
She later found him unresponsive and soaked in sweat, it said.
Paramedics took him to a hospital in Fort Myers on Florida’s southwest coast where he was declared dead, and the medical examiner classified the death as a homicide.
Trainor, Watkins and Garrigus were charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child.
Trainor, 46, was also charged with aggravated child abuse ‘for the torture and unlawful caging’ of the boy, King said
Watkins had custody of her grandson because the child’s mother had been involved in domestic violence, and Trainor was helping her care for him, King said.