Background: News footage of Kapri Cheatom in court for her sentencing on May 11, 2026 (KSAT). Inset: Danilo Coles (Facebook).
The stepmother of a Texas boy who was forced to do push-ups until his muscles broke down was sentenced to prison for her role in the boy's death.
Kapri Cheatom, 31, pleaded guilty to injury to a child causing serious bodily injury and was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday. The sentencing came more than four years after 12-year-old Danilo Coles, Cheatom's stepson, was found unresponsive by police at the family's home in San Antonio, Texas, on Feb. 6, 2022. His father, 35-year-old Derrick Coles, told police that the boy fell in the shower.
When Danilo arrived at the hospital, he was pronounced brain dead. Medical staff said he was covered in injuries that indicated something far worse had happened.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by local CBS affiliate KEYE, medical staff said Danilo had "whipping marks" on his torso and legs, internal bleeding in his stomach, and injuries to his buttocks that were so severe that his skin was coming off.
Police said on the day Danilo was brought to the hospital, Coles disciplined his son by making him hold a 50-pound box of water bottles. Danilo could not hold the box, and Coles eventually forced the boy to do "military-style" pushups for about four hours. According to reporting on the affidavit by The San Antonio Express-News, both Coles and Cheatom made Danilo do push-ups until he collapsed. They also hit the boy with a belt.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled that Danilo's cause of death was rhabdomyolysis, a condition caused when muscle tissues break down, releasing toxic chemicals into the bloodstream, and then ultimately cause organ failure. An emergency doctor who testified at Coles' trial said the condition was only fatal in extreme circumstances.
Coles was found guilty in October 2025 of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
According to courtroom reporting by local ABC affiliate KSAT, Cheatom's defense attorney said her only crime was not stopping the abuse toward Danilo. Prosecutors argued that she participated in it, saying she admitted to "striking him five times."
The judge addressed Cheatom at the hearing, telling her, "You failed to protect this 12-year-old boy."
Cheatom was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence, with credit for time served. She will be eligible for parole after serving half her sentence.