'May she be forever haunted': Mom who said she 'dropped the ball' when her 14-year-old son died weighing just 33 pounds is headed to prison for decades

Left: Zakye Smith-Nelson (Baldwin Brothers Funeral Home). Right: Talia Nelson (Volusia County Jail).

A 45-year-old Florida woman is headed to prison for more than three decades for neglecting, abusing and ultimately killing her 14-year-old son, who weighed only 33 pounds when he died.

Talia Nelson on Monday pleaded no contest to charges of aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse in the death of Zakye Smith-Nelson. A judge then sentenced Nelson to 32 years behind bars, prosecutors said.

The defendant tried to blame her son's dire condition on a rare bone disease, lactose intolerance and bulimia. But investigators learned Nelson hadn't bothered to take her son to a doctor in nearly four years. He also had fresh bruises on his face and scars across his torso, back and legs.

"This case brought tears to my eyes when I saw the condition of our teenage victim," State Attorney R.J. Larizza said in a statement. "It is incomprehensible for a mother to neglect and torture her own flesh and blood to the extent we uncovered in this case. How could she watch her son suffer for weeks and months and years until he weighed less than a typical 7-year-old child? Heartless and cruel are words that come to mind. May he rest in peace, and may she be forever haunted by her brutal and vicious crime."

The average weight for a 14-year-old boy is between 110 and 120 pounds, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the Daytona Beach Police Department at 8:02 p.m. on Jan. 1, 2024, responded to Nelson's home on Carolina Lake Drive regarding a report of an unconscious juvenile, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The Daytona Beach News-Journal. Upon arriving at the home, first responders made contact with Nelson, who claimed that she was cooking dinner for her son when she saw that he had fallen to the floor unconscious.

Officers at the scene reportedly noted that the child "appeared to be extremely malnourished, weighing only 33 pounds" and had what appeared to be bedsores running up the side of his body. Nelson explained the boy's emaciated appearance by telling police that Zakye was bulimic, lactose intolerant, and lived with a rare bone disease. However, Nelson could not identify the names of any doctors who had diagnosed her son with those ailments.

A search of the home reportedly revealed that one of three bedrooms contained no furniture, only soiled clothing and what smelled like "stale urine," police said. In the main bedroom, officers found laptops issued for the purpose of homeschooling that were still in the boxes and appeared to have never been opened.

An autopsy determined that Zakye was "severely malnourished" to the point that he had been losing bone density, per the report. The boy also had scars on his legs and torso that the medical examiner said were consistent with being struck by a long, flexible object. Bedsores reportedly covered the boy's body, indicating that he likely couldn't move much on his own and would not have been able to cause the marks on his own.

It was ultimately determined that his manner of death was a homicide and the cause of death was abuse and neglect, local NBC affiliate WESH reported.

"At 33 pounds, the kid probably couldn't even walk," Jimmie Flynt of the Daytona Beach Police Department told the station.

In an interview with police, Nelson reportedly claimed that her son would make himself vomit, so she gave him protein shakes in the hope he would start gaining weight. She also allegedly conceded that she had "dropped the ball" by failing to seek medical attention for the starving boy, particularly because he had been unable to walk on his own for several weeks. However, Nelson did note that to get around, the 14-year-old would "scoot on his butt," per the report.

Nelson reportedly told police that she did not neglect her son.

Medical records subpoenaed by authorities showed that Zakye had not seen a doctor since he was 10 years old. However, at that time, the boy was reportedly healthy, with doctors indicating that he had good vitals, was well-nourished, and showed no signs of concern regarding his growth or development.

"This is a well-nourished, well-developed patient, in no apparent distress," the doctor who examined Zakye in 2020 reportedly wrote in the boy's medical records.

Jerry Lambe contributed to this report