VAN NUYS (CNS) – A 5-year-old boy who was allegedly killed by his mother’s ex-boyfriend suffered horrific injuries before his body was dumped in a Panorama City trash bin, according to a medical examiner’s report, as the suspect remains jailed awaiting trial.
Brycson Malik Gaddis, who is now 21, was charged in August 2025 with one count each of murder and assault on a child causing death involving the boy who was identified by authorities as Elyjah Hearn.
The child’s naked, blanket-wrapped body was found July 12, 2025, in a trash bin in a parking lot in the 8200 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, just south of Roscoe Boulevard.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s report on Elyjah listed the date and location of his fatal injuries as unknown. The body was examined three days after it was found.
The report listed the cause of death as blunt-force trauma and the manner as homicide and details a host of injuries, including blunt-force trauma to the head and body, with a broken jaw, knocked out tooth, multiple head contusions and abrasions, as well as liver lacerations that left blood inside the child’s thoracic cavity. Elyjah also had a broken rib.
The boy also had multiple blunt trauma injuries to his extremities that were in the process of healing, according to the medical examiner, who detected trace amounts of methamphetamine in the boy’s body.
The report also said “an asphyxial event cannot be ruled out,” meaning the boy may have been choked or strangled.
Gaddis was arrested July 16, 2025, by officers from the LA Police Department’s (LAPD) Hollywood station and has remained jailed in lieu of $2.05 million bail.
Authorities have not said how Gaddis may be related to the boy, but police said he is not the boy’s biological father.
Troy Hearn Sr., identified by the LA Times as the boy’s grandfather, told the newspaper that Gaddis is the ex-boyfriend of the child’s mother.
Hearn said the boy’s mother was among the five people questioned by police, but she was ultimately released. Hearn said Gaddis had been stalking the boy’s mother, and allegedly kidnapped the boy and his mother and forced them into an apartment complex near the location where the child’s body was ultimately found.
Detectives with the LAPD’s Abused Child Unit led the investigation into the death. Police said a tip from the public led them to a “large Panorama City apartment complex in the 14500 block of Lanark [Street].”
A vigil for the young victim was taking place as police arrived July 15, 2025, at the apartment complex, less than a half-mile from where the boy’s body was found.
Then at around 1 a.m. the next day, while detectives were still collecting evidence at a second unit, LAPD personnel detained two more men and a woman near Sunset Boulevard and Ivar Avenue in Hollywood, police said.
All five adults were taken in for questioning, and the LA County Department of Children and Family Services took custody of two children, police said then.
Gaddis is due back in a Van Nuys courtroom May 13, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence against him to allow the case to proceed to trial.